ARK Investment Buys the Dips in 1Life, Berkeley Lights, Signify Health

Cathie Wood and her ARK Investment Management firm have made no secret of their investment strategy: find those companies that have a product or service that could change the way the world works. ARK calls that “disruptive innovation.”

To support those investments, ARK also invests in what Wood has called “cash-like innovation stocks,” such as Apple, Tesla, Alphabet and Netflix, because ARK’s funds are not allowed to hold cash. She told CNBC in May, “During a period of volatility like we’ve just seen, we will sell those stocks and move into either our more pure-play or earlier-stage innovation companies that are being hurt by risk-off.”

Walking the talk, ARK funds sold all 594,039 Apple shares they owned in March during the June quarter and about 22,000 Netflix shares and 80,000 Tesla shares in the same period.

Here are three health care companies that ARK invested in during the June quarter.

1Life

1Life Healthcare Inc. (NASDAQ: ONEM) has lost about 57% of its market value since peaking at $7.81 billion in February. At the end of March, the ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (NYSEARCA: ARKG) held 3.5 million shares of 1Life. At the end of June, this fund’s stake in the company had increased to 4.3 million shares.

In May, ARK analyst Simon Barnett had this comment on 1Life:

One [Healthcare]’s “click-and-mortar” platform spans both digital and in-person primary care and incorporates its own EHR [electronic health record] system. It also compensates physicians with salaries instead of fees for service and removes the burden of administrative tasks that devour so much of a physician’s day. In our view, this model could be fertile ground for value-based genetic testing services.

On Thursday, Barclays initiated coverage on 1Life at Overweight with a price target of $32. Ten of 12 analysts covering the company rate the shares a Buy or Strong Buy, and the other two have a Hold rating. Barclays estimated a long-term growth target on the stock in the mid-20% range, based on an enterprise value-to-sales multiple. The median price target on the stock is $40.50, implying upside potential to a current price of around $24.20 of 67%. At the high price target of $63, the upside potential on the stock is 160%.

1Life’s shares traded up less than 2% late Thursday morning, at $24.63 in a 52-week range of $23.65 to $58.82. The stock trades about 1.5 million shares a day on average.

Signify Health

Since its market cap peaked at $6.95 billion in late June, Signify Health Inc. (NYSE: SGFY) has dropped about 21% of its value. At the end of March, the ARKG fund held about 1.7 million shares in the company, and at the end of June, it had more than doubled its stake just over 4 million shares. On Wednesday, the ARK Innovation ETF (NYSEARCA: ARKK) initiated a position in Signify, adding 807,917 shares at a cost of $24.30 per share. Including additions to ARKG since June, ARK Invest’s total stake in the company is about 7.35 million shares, valued at $178.58 million.

Signify Health operates a health care platform that offers services primarily for Medicare Advantage plans that include health evaluations, diagnostic screening and other services plus a platform to manage payments.

Barclays upgraded the company’s stock from Equal Weight to Overweight and maintained its $30 price target. At the median price target of $32, the upside potential based on a current price of about $25.00 is 28%. At the high price target of $42, the upside potential is 68%. Only eight brokerages cover the firm, but six rate the stock a Buy or Strong Buy.

Shares traded up 3.3% to $25.05 on Thursday. The stock’s 52-week range is $22.13 to $40.79, and it trades just over half a million shares a day.

Berkeley Lights

Berkeley Lights Inc. (NASDAQ: BLI) posted a peak market cap of $6.82 billion in late December of last year. When markets closed on Wednesday, the company’s market cap had fallen by 57% to around $2.92 billion. At the end of the first quarter of this year, both the ARKG and ARKK funds combined held about 5.1 million shares of the company’s stock. At the end of June, the holdings totaled about 6.9 million shares. As of Wednesday’s close, ARK’s total holdings were just under 7 million shares.

Berkeley Lights is a biotech firm that offers an integrated hardware and software platform for the development and commercialization of biotherapeutics and other cell-based products. The company failed to meet expectations for both its quarterly loss per share and quarterly revenue. As other investors bailed, ARK bought the dip and acquired about 340,000 shares of the company’s stock.

Morgan Stanley kept its Equal Weight rating on the stock but reduced its 12-month price target from $73 to $66. Analysts at BTIG maintained their Buy rating on the stock but lowered their price target from $70 to $65. In a note to investors, BTIG commented:

We recommend shares of BLI on unfounded weakness (shares are down 63% from its peak in December despite strong operational execution). We view BLI as an emerging global leader in helping researchers characterize live cells for accelerating development of biotherapeutics and other cell-based products, from antibody therapeutics and cell therapy to gene therapy and synthetic biology.

Shares traded up around 1% on Thursday, at $40.08 in a 52-week range of $35.51 to $113.53. The stock trades around 800,000 shares a day.

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