Cathie Wood buys over $45M in Robinhood stock on first day

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Cathie Wood sunk more than $45 million into Robinhood, apparently unshaken by the commission free-trading app’s disappointing first day of trading.

Wood’s flagship $25.5-billion ARK Innovation fund purchased almost 1.3 million shares of the company on Thursday, according to ARK Investment Management’s daily trading report.

Based on Robinhood’s closing price of $34.82 per share — down 8.37 percent from its opening price — on Thursday, that gives ARK a more than $45 million stake in the company.

Wood rose to prominence in 2020, when her main active fund reported gains of 149 percent for the year. She’s become an outspoken advocate for growth stocks in hot sectors like space exploration and financial technology.

Her apparent endorsement of Robinhood at its current price could help turn the company’s fortunes around.

It booked a tough debut on the Nasdaq Thursday. The IPO was priced at $38 per share, the low end of its range, and the stock still fell once it started trading, closing at a valuation of about $29 billion.

Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev attend Robinhood Markets IPO Listing Day on July 29, 2021 in New York City.
Baiju Bhatt and Vlad Tenev attended Robinhood Markets IPO Listing Day on July 29, 2021, in New York City.
Getty Images for Robinhood

Concerns over potential regulatory challenges may have kept investors on the sidelines.

CEO Vlad Tenev was called to testify before Congress in February over the company’s controversial decision to halt trading in stocks popular with the Reddit Rally crowd, like GameStop and AMC, resulting in questions about its business model.

The company has also been investigated and forced to settle with federal regulatory agencies over its past mistakes, which it has largely attributed to startup growing pains.

President Biden’s SEC chief Gary Gensler has since vowed to look into the company’s practice of selling customer order flow to high-speed trading firms like Citadel.

“There are costs,” Gensler has said of Robinhood’s no-fee trading model. “The costs are below the surface.”

Others, including Warren Buffett’s longtime business partner Charlie Munger, have also criticized the business model.

For its IPO, Robinhood tried to practice what it preaches, offering early access to up to 35 percent of its shares to retail investors through its app.

But, according to boutique investment research firm Vanda Securities, retail interest in Robinhood was relatively subdued.

According to their data, amateur investors bought just $18.85 million worth of Robinhood stock on Thursday.

A chart showing that Robinhood landed mid-pack in first day net retail purchases on its opening day.
Robinhood landed mid-pack in first day net retail purchases on its opening day.
Vanda Securities

That’s far short of what other major tech companies saw from retail investors on their first days of trading, according to Vanda.

For example, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi saw retail investors buy $69 million in shares on its debut and Coinbase brought in $57.35 million from retail investors in its debut only a couple of months ago.

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