Ark Invest; Insider
- Cathie Wood of Ark Invest says meme stocks are "dinosaurs."
- Robinhood is the closest company to a meme stock Ark Invest has ever owned, Wood said.
- She made the comments at the CFA Societies Australia 2021 Australian Investment Conference Thursday.
Ark Invest's Cathie Wood compared meme stocks to an extinct species Thursday during a conference.
The superstar investor called the stocks – which include companies such as GameStop and AMC – "dinosaurs" during her talk at the CFA Societies Australia 2021 Australian Investment Conference, Bloomberg first reported.
"I guess the only one people might consider a meme stock that we own, or have ever owned, is Robinhood," she said. Wood did not immediately respond to Insider's request for further comment on the matter.
Meme stocks received their name in January after an army of retail traders mobilized on Reddit investing threads drove massive rallies in shares of highly shorted companies like GameStop and AMC. The stocks have been criticized by those on Wall Street who say their prices are detached from the companies' actual values.
Wood, the founder and chief executive officer of Ark Investment, said instead her firm is looking for the next FAANG stock, like Alphabet's Google or Apple, Bloomberg reported.
Her firm's popular flagship fund, the Ark Innovation ETF, is largely focused on tech stocks. Wood has garnered a cult-like status on Wall Street after her firm outperformed amid a turbulent market in 2020, but year-to-date, the fund is down about 9% as investors have fled.
Wood has backed other favorites among retail traders aside from memes, though. Last month, she cashed in on hundreds of millions of dollars after selling Tesla shares as the EV-maker rallied. She has said previously she likes taking profit amid a company's stock gains and buys on price dips.
Wood has also been vocal about her bullish stance on bitcoin, which she predicts will soar to $500,000 in five years. The cryptocurrency broke the $60,000 level Friday as investors awaited US Securities and Exchange Commission approval for a bitcoin ETF.
Wood submitted an application for a bitcoin ETF of her own this week called the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin Futures Strategy ETF, which will carry the ticker ARKA.