Cathie Wood’s Flagship Fund Has Dumped Almost Every Zillow Share
The scale of Cathie Wood’s dramatic cull of her big stake in Zillow is now clear.
(Bloomberg) -- The scale of Cathie Wood’s dramatic cull of her big stake in Zillow Group is now clear, two weeks after she bought an initial dip in the beleaguered real estate company.
The ARK Innovation exchange-traded fund (ticker ARKK), Wood’s main product, held fewer than 1,000 shares of Zillow at the close on Wednesday worth just $50,000, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Earlier this month it owned 7.1 million valued at well over $600 million.
It’s a similar story for the ARK Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), which is down to about 11,200 shares of the Seattle-based property firm from about 1.4 million earlier this year.
The rapid unwind underscores how fast the view of Wood and her firm, Ark Investment Management, has changed regarding Zillow. The famed money manager is usually known for sticking with her bets through thick and thin.
The only other fund holding Zillow is the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF), which has around 1.4 million shares -- down from more than 2 million.
Shares of Zillow have fallen about 40% in November after the company announced plans to shut down Zillow Offers, its AI-powered home-flipping operation, and reduce its workforce by roughly 25%. Wood initially bought the 10% drop that greeted the announcement before a dramatic u-turn.
“In ARK’s view, this news is the result of execution issues associated with Zillow’s AI pricing algorithms despite its access to ample data, calling into question the high balance sheet risk necessary to enable the scaling of iBuying business models,” Ark said later that week in its regular commentary on its biggest moving shares.
A spokesperson for the firm didn’t respond to a request for comment regarding its reduced stake in the company.
After a stellar 2020, Ark’s performance this year has been more mixed. The flagship fund ARKK has lost about 6.2%, while ARKW has returned 5.5% and ARKF is up 4%.
Zillow was down as much as 3.2% in New York trading Thursday to hit near the lows seen in June of last year.
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