Investment guru Cathie Wood increases Israel portfolio

Cathie Wood Credit: YouTube
Cathie Wood Credit: YouTube

Wood's Ark Fund raised its stake in many Israeli companies in the second quarter and its portfolio includes non-tech companies.

Despite the strong falls in the share prices of tech companies traded on Wall Street, investors still believe in US investment guru Cathie Wood, mainly for the long-term. Over $1.5 billion flowed into her flagship Ark Fund in the first half of 2022, according to "The Financial Times."

It also seems that Wood herself believes in Israeli companies, and not only tech companies. This week Ark Investments holdings at the end of the second quarter were published and alongside Shopify, Tesla, Teladoc, Zoom, Roblox and Coinbase, there are also holdings in many Israeli tech companies and others.

Ark's biggest holding is in Rehovot-based 3D printing company Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS). Ark holds shares worth $142 million after the fund increased its stake in the company in the second quarter. During the second quarter Stratasys's share price fell 26%, while Ark purchased 400,000 more shares. Taking the average price of the share during this period, this was an investment of $8 million.

Another significant holding is Israeli industrial 3D printing company Nano Dimension (Nasdaq: NNDM), in which Ark has a stake worth $53.4 million. Nano Dimension's share price fell 12% during the second quarter while Ark sold 14% of its shares in the company for several million dollars. Last year, Wood's interest was seen as one of the reasons why the share price rose so sharply.

Ark also has a relatively large position worth $41 million in Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ESLT; TASE:ESLT). Ark has shares worth $25 million in work operating system company monday.com (Nasdaq: MNDY), shares worth $22.6 million in biotech company Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE:CGEN), and shares worth $20 million in e-commerce platform Global-e (Nasdaq: GLBE).

monday.com and Global-e are newly listed Israeli tech companies that held Wall Street IPOs last year. Veteran biotech company Compugen's share price fell 44% in the second quarter while Ark increased its stake with an estimated investment of $1 million. Similarly Global-e's share price fell 36% in the second quarter while Ark took advantage of the opportunity to invest over $5.5 million. On the other hand Elbit Systems share price rose by 5% in the second quarter (after a sharp rise in the first quarter) and Ark sold shares for several million dollars in the second quarter, with its holding falling slightly.

In the second quarter, Ark sold 10% of its stake in Bezeq Israel Telecommunications Company Ltd. (TASE:BZEQ) and it now has a holding worth $2 million. Ark also reduced its stakes in radar developer RADA Electronic Industries Ltd., stem cell biotech company Gamida Cell (Nasdaq: GMDA), and firewall management company Tufin (NYSE: TUFN), which was sold during the quarter, although the deal has not yet been completed.

Other Israeli companies in which Ark has a stake include Electra Consumer Products (TASE: ECP) with shares worth $1.6 million, hotel chain Fattal Holdings (1998) (TASE: FTAL), with shares also worth $1.6 million, and human resources and nursing company Danel (TASE: DANE) with shares worth $1.7 million.

Ark also holds shares in IT companies Hilan (TASE: HLAN), Matrix (TASE: MTRX), One Software (TASE: ONE), Malam Team (TASE: MLTM) as well as Partner Communications (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR), fintech company Nayax (TASE: NYAX), and 3D printing company Massivit (TASE: MSVT).

Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on July 13, 2022.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2022.

Cathie Wood Credit: YouTube
Cathie Wood Credit: YouTube
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