Cathie Wood is having another rough year. The largest of the Ark Invest exchange-traded funds is down 14% this year in an otherwise buoyant year for growth investors. The fund is down 72% since peaking in early 2021. As the founder, CEO, and primary stock picker, she is tasked to get Ark back on track. And she's not backing down.
Wood is making moves, and Ark publishes its transactions at the end of every trading day. What is Wood buying now? She added to existing stakes in Guardant Health(NASDAQ: GH), Oklo(NYSE: OKLO), and CRISPR Technologies(NASDAQ: CRSP) on Tuesday. Why are these attractive stocks to consider buying right now? Let's take a closer look at Wood's three latest buys.
1. Guardant Health
Guardant Health isn't dragging down Ark's performance this year. The developer of oncological tests is up 34% this year, beating the market averages. The shares have actually more than doubled since bottoming out in April.
The company may be years away from profitability, but it already has one successful product line on the market following FDA approval. Guardant360 is a portfolio of liquid and tissue precision oncology tests. It's not cheap, but it's essential enough to have broad commercial and Medicare coverage in instances of advanced solid tumors.
Image source: Getty Images.
Guardant Health has other tests in various stages of development, but one that's closing in on FDA approval is Shield. This is a colorectal cancer screening tool that has proved somewhat effective in early detection. There's already a rival's viable test on the market, and I'm not talking about the dreaded colonoscopies where the prep is often more traumatic than the test itself. Exact Sciences(NASDAQ: EXAS) has Cologuard freely available, and you may have even seen it advertised on TV or radio.
Cologuard is reportedly more accurate than Guardant's Shield, but that doesn't mean Shield has no chance. A big difference is that Cologuard requires a stool sample, a process than can be messy and carries some stigma. Shield is a simple blood test.
Guardant products completed 202,800 clinical or biopharmaceutical tests last year, nearly double the tally from two years earlier. This may seem like a low number, but at an average price tag of $2,536 -- and a gross profit of more than $1,500 per test -- it adds up. It generated $563 million in revenue in 2023. Guardant expects to be profitable by 2028. It also sees revenue nearly quadrupling from current levels to top $2 billion by then.
2. Oklo
Guardant Health is beating the market this year, but the same can't be said about the two other names on this list. Oklo shares are trading 16% lower this year, roughly in line with Ark Invest's overall performance in 2024.
Oklo itself hasn't been trading since the end of last year. The fast fission tech and nuclear recycling company went public in May by pairing up with a special purpose acquisition company. Oklo isn't a household name, but Chairman Sam Altman may be a name you know. Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, but he also has a keen interest clean energy. The company recently announced that it successfully completed its first end-to-end demonstration of its advanced fuel recycling process, but the shares are essentially where they were before the milestone was announced two weeks ago.
Oklo held an Investor Day earlier this year, but it has yet to announce its first quarterly financials as a public company. When it does happen, that will be a good time to get on track with a strong performance.
3. CRISPR Therapeutics
Wood is a big believer in gene-editing stock, and CRISPR is one of its most popular players. Gene editing is a relatively new way to tackle genetic diseases, but CRISPR has been in this market for more than a decade.
CRISPR got its first approval last year, with Casgevy. This isn't just a potential treatment for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta-thalassemia. It's also a platform validator that can make the door open more easily as CRISPR aims to tackle other applications.
CRISPR is trading 10% lower this year. Wood sees an opportunity in CRISPR here at a depressed share price with its wide-open potential.
Should you invest $1,000 in Guardant Health right now?
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Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends CRISPR Therapeutics and Guardant Health. The Motley Fool recommends Exact Sciences. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
