ARK Buys Another Seven Million Skillz Shares in Just Three Days

Posted on: May 5, 2021, 09:39h. 

Last updated on: May 6, 2021, 10:49h.

Todd Shriber @etfgodfather Read More
Expertise: Financial, Gaming Business, Mergers and Acquisitions.

It’s in a now-lengthy slump. But Skillz (NYSE:SKLZ) stock has friends in high places — namely, Cathie Wood’s ARK Investment Management.

Skillz stock
ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood. Her firm bought about seven million shares of Skillz stock just this week. (Image: Bloomberg)

In just the past three trading days, the New York-based money manager and exchange traded funds (ETFs) issuer scooped up approximately seven million shares of the mobile games developer, adding to what’s already one of the largest institutional stakes in the newly public company.

Today, Wood’s firm bought 1.96 million Skillz shares for the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKK) — the issuer’s biggest ETF — and 1.16 million shares of the stock for the ARK Next Generation ETF (NYSEARCA:ARKW).

Those buys came a day after San Francisco-based Skillz reported first-quarter results. While the company boosted full-year revenue guidance to $375 million, the stock tumbled 8.73 percent today on heavy volume, as investors fretted about a wider-than-expected loss in the first three months of the year, and rising customer acquisition costs.

ARK Love for Skillz Stock Runs Deep

Wednesday’s activity in Skillz by ARK comes after the fund manager bought big in the embattled gaming name on the prior day.

Yesterday, the ETF issuer gobbled up 2.71 million Skillz shares for the ARK Innovation ETF, while adding another 354,633 shares to the aforementioned internet ETF. So in the span of two days, Wood’s firm added approximately 6.2 million shares of Skillz to two of its ETFs. ARKW was one of the first ETFs to own Skillz shares in quantity. On Monday, ARK bought almost 721,000 Skillz shares for the innovation ETF.

ARK is buying Skillz stock on weakness. The shares are off almost 17 percent over just the past week, 18.65 percent over the past month, and down 66.56 percent from the March highs. From today’s close at $15.48, Skillz needs to essentially triple to reclaim its all-time high at $46.30.

ARK Probably Playing the Long Game with Skillz

ARK now owns 10.47 million shares of Skillz in ARKK and another 8.16 million shares in ARKW, likely making the fund manager the second-largest shareholder, based on the most recent filing data.

While ARK’s Skillz purchases appear ill-advised, particularly with the stock under siege from recent research by a trio of bearish researchers, Wood is famous for saying her firm takes a long view of hyper-growth stocks, often up to five years.

It’s a strategy that’s paid off handsomely for ARK investors, as the firm nailed staggering returns on iconic growth stocks such as Roku, Square, and Tesla, among others.

Speaking of buying slumping gaming equities, ARK bought roughly 728,000 shares of DraftKings today, spread across ARKK and ARKW. That followed the purchase of nearly 577,000 shares of the sportsbook operator for ARKK on Tuesday

ARK owns DraftKings stock across three of its ETFs.