Ark Invest returns to investing in Amazon stocks

Last week, Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest purchased more than 39,000 Amazon shares.

Now the ETFs of Ark Invest as a whole own more than 400,000 AMZN shares.

The purchases of Amazon shares by Cathie Wood of Ark Invest

The first major purchases of Amazon shares were made by Ark Invest ETFs in 2022, when they came to own more than 70,000 in total.

Last year, in the middle of the bull run, they bought more, but in August, when the stock price of AMZN had fallen below $170, they had sold almost all of them.

Note that the initial purchases were made at a price of $110 per share. 

Starting from September 2024, however, they returned to buying, but without exceeding 30,000 shares. 

Subsequently, they made three large purchases, one in October, one in November, and one in December, thanks to which they managed to exceed 380,000 shares. 

With the recent purchase last week, they have moved well above 400,000 shares, which now have a total value in dollars of more than 87 million. 

The trend on the Stock Exchange of Amazon (AMZN) shares

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, in March 2020, the price of Amazon shares had risen to almost $110.

After a strong decline due to the start of the pandemic, which brought the price down to $81 in a matter of days, a new climb towards new all-time highs began. 

On the other hand, the largest QE in the entire history of the Fed was underway, and the financial markets were flooded with an excessive amount of liquidity. 

In fact, the price of Amazon shares in 2021 reached peaks above $180, only to then collapse to $81 during the bear-market of 2022. In other words, the e-commerce boom during the pandemic, and the Fed’s QE, inflated a speculative bubble on the price of Amazon shares, which in 2022 burst, bringing the price back to where the bubble had started to inflate. 

But in 2023 and 2024 things went differently. 

In fact, for almost two consecutive years, the price of Amazon shares rose almost constantly, reaching new all-time highs in December 2024 above the 230$ mark. 

Note that the first purchases by Ark Invest were made during the bear-market of 2022, and the large sale was made in 2024 at a price almost 50% higher. 

Ark Invest by Cathie Wood

The ETFs of Ark Invest are actively managed funds, meaning that their underlying assets are constantly updated and modified by the managers. 

Ark Invest in turn is the investment company founded in 2014 by Cathie Wood, who is still the CEO. 

The largest ETF of Ark Invest by AUM is ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), with more than six billion dollars of assets under management, followed by ARK Fintech innovation ETF (ARKF), with more than 1.3 billion dollars, ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (ARKG), with more than 1.2 billion, and ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), with more than 1.1 billion. 

ARKK has invested heavily in Tesla, and Roku, but also in Coinbase, Robinhood and Block.

ARKF, on the other hand, has invested heavily in Shopify, but also in Coinbase, Robinhood, Block, and in Ark’s ETF on Bitcoin (ARKB).

ARKW even has its single largest investment in ARKB, followed by Tesla, Roku, and Coinbase. 

During the bear-market of 2022, and then 2023, the performance of Ark Invest’s actively managed ETFs was not good at all, but in 2024 they recovered. 

For example, ARKF in the last twelve months has recorded a positive performance of 66%, which, however, drops to -5% over three years, and rises to 10% over five years. 

ARKW is at +62% in the last year, but still at -7% in the last three (and at +15% in the last five).

ARKK instead drops to +25% in the last year, with even a -18% in the last three, and a meager +3% in the last five.