Not many hedge managers have ignited as much controversy as Cathie Wood. The founder of Ark Invest has built her brand on running against the crowd. From her early embrace of tech stocks to her outspoken political conservatism, Cathie Wood has always been something of a lightning rod.
Whether her investments and stock strategies are panning out or not, one thing has always been consistent. Wood has never deviated from her path, and continues to this day to urge investors to stay the path.
Wood has long built a reputation for carefully researching every stock pick, never flinching from ‘doing the homework’ behind investing, and her research has convinced her that, long-term, her picks will bear fruit.
With this in mind, it’s interesting to take a look at some of the stocks that Wood has been buying lately. We’ve found that she’s recently doubled down on two positions in her fund, making significant purchases in the last quarter. In fact, Wood is not the only one singing these stocks’ praises. According to the TipRanks platform – they are rated as Strong Buys by the Street’s analysts. Let’s take a closer look.
Global-e Online (GLBE)
The first stock we’ll look at is Global-e Online, a tech firm focused on international e-commerce. The company provides an online platform to e-commerce customers who operate in the international direct-to-consumer niche, and have to deal with cross-border matters of tax and customs regulations. Global-e’s platform makes it possible to smooth out that issues, making international online shopping easier for both sellers and buyers. The company works with enterprise customers in US, European, and Asian markets, and can localize its platform to accommodate dozens of languages, currencies, and regulatory regimes.
In the most recent quarter, Global-e reported $87.3 million at the top line, up 52% year-over-year. While this was significant growth, it was a slowdown from the 92% y/y revenue growth reported in the year-ago quarter. Gross merchandise value of goods facilitated on the platform was way up, growing from $326 million one year ago to $534 million in the recent report; a y/y gain of 64%. Gross profits rose 77% y/y to $36.5 million in non-GAAP numbers. At the same time, the company reported a net loss of $48.8 million for the quarter, much deeper than the $22.2 million net loss in the year-ago quarter.
After all of that, shares in Global-e are down by 46% so far this year, in volatile trading. Despite the losses, Cathie Wood has expanded her stake in Global-e. She picked up 249,095 shares in GLBE, expanding her holding by 44% to a new total of 812,173. Wood first bought into the company in Q1 of this year, and her total shares are worth $27.79 million at current prices.
Wood is not alone in showing confidence in this name. James Faucette, 5-star analyst with Morgan Stanley, believes Global-e has the ability to keep delivering for investors.
“GLBE management is executing efficiently despite a turbulent macro environment… we were encouraged to hear about improving European consumer demand trends, along with relatively constructive broader merchant demand for GLBE’s cross-border offering. Looking ahead, we see multiple levers for continued rapid growth into ’23, including progress in APAC outbound, land and expand optionality with larger brands (e.g. Adidas/Disney), and SHOP partnership acceleration, pushing us incrementally bullish on the compounding potential of GLBE’s platform,” Faucette opined.
Acknowledging the company’s potential growth, Faucette rates GLBE shares an Overweight (i.e. Buy), and his $51 price target suggests an upside of 49% for the year ahead. (To watch Faucette’s track record, click here)
The bullish take is no outlier on this one, as all 9 of the recent analyst reviews of GLBE are positive, giving the stock a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating. The stock is selling for $34.22 and its $41.44 average price target implies a 21% one-year upside potential. (See GLBE stock forecast on TipRanks)
Nurix Therapeutics (NRIX)
Now let’s turn to the biopharmaceutical sector, where Nurix Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company, is Cathie Wood’s second recent ‘big buy.’ This company is working on small molecule therapeutic agents for the treatment of a wide range of disease conditions – but the common factor is a set of drug candidates using the body’s own protein degradation processes in the treatment approach.
Nurix’s DELigase platform, a proprietary research tech, underlies the firm’s discovery mode and has led the company to bring four drug candidates to the human clinical trial stage. All four are currently undergoing Phase 1 trials in the treatment of several cancers.
In the last few months, Nurix has announced several updates to the clinical programs. Most recently, the company has announced that NX-1607, an immuno-oncology treatment designed as an orally dosed treatment for arrange of solid tumor types, has had its Investigation New Drug application (IND) cleared by the FDA, smoothing the way for additional clinical trials.
In addition, NX-2127, a treatment for B-cell malignancies, has advanced from Phase 1a to Phase 1b testing. This is an expansion phase of the trial, based on positive data on efficacy, safety, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics reported from the earlier dose escalation study.
Finally, NX-5948, also a treatment for B-cell malignancies, has seen the dosing of the first patient in a Phase 1a/1b study. This trial is a dose escalation and expansion study, designed to safety and tolerability in adult patients.
Despite these ongoing trials and early data, the company’s stock is down 46% year-to-date.
While the stock is down Cathie Wood is ready to buy. She boosted her holding in Nurix by 99% in Q2, picking up 386,734 shares. Her total holding, which is worth $12.22 million, now reaches 778,725 shares.
In coverage for Stifel, 5-star analyst Stephen Willey points out the quality of the company’s pipeline, writing: “We believe 2HCY22 incremental data disclosures from all four development programs currently in the clinic continues to represent one of the more-actionable, near-term catalyst paths of any name within our coverage universe, and we’ll be particularly focused on incremental safety/efficacy data from the P1a trial evaluating NX-2127 (dual IMiD/BTK degrader) and safety/PK/biomarker data from the P1a trial evaluating NX-1607 (orally bioavailable CBL-B inhibitor).”
To this end, Willey puts a Buy rating on Nurix shares, and his $37 price target implies a potential one-year gain of ~136%. (To watch Willey’s track record, click here)
Once again, we’re looking at a stock with a unanimous Strong Buy consensus rating, this one based on 10 recent analyst reviews. The average price target here, at $37.89, suggests a robust 141% upside from the current trading price of $15.70. (See NRIX stock forecast on TipRanks)
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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the featured analysts. The content is intended to be used for informational purposes only. It is very important to do your own analysis before making any investment.
