Noted investor and ETF head Cathie Wood doesn’t shy away from standing behind her picks and sharing her long-term thesis on why the stocks were good bets for the long-term.
Two video game-related stocks were recently defended by Wood, despite large year-to-date declines. Here are the two stocks and why Wood was bullish.
Unity Software: Software platform company Unity Software Inc U saw shares trade down 38% on Wednesday after reporting first-quarter financial results.
Wood pointed to the company noting its Audience PinPointer tool having faulty data that impacted the Operate segment for Unity.
“Aside from that bad news, management noted that Unity’s Create segment’s revenue grew 65% year-over-year thanks to surging demand for its real-time 3D rendering tools,” Wood said.
The company reduced full-year guidance during the quarterly report, but Wood remained a long-term believer.
“We maintain high conviction in Unity’s longer-term ability to execute, our confidence reinforced by Create’s exceptionally strong growth. We also expect Operate’s growth to reaccelerate.”
Wood said Unity provides solutions for 2D and 3D content and has a strong pipeline of monetization opportunities.
Unity is the 14th-largest holding in the flagship Ark Innovation ETF ARKK representing 3% of assets under management. Unity is also the 17th-largest holding in the Ark Next-Generation Internet ETF ARKW representing 2.4% of assets.
Unity shares traded at $36.14 at the time of publication Monday afternoon versus a 52-week range of $29.09 to $210. Shares were down 73% year-to-date.
Related Link: Why Ark Innovation ETF Hit 52-Week Lows Today
Roblox: Popular mobile and desktop video game Roblox Corp RBLX was another favorite of Wood and Ark Funds.
Shares dropped last week on the heels of the company’s first-quarter earnings report with bookings down.
“While total bookings declined 3% year-over-year against tough COVID-related comps of 160% growth during the first quarter of 2021, other metrics are highlighting Roblox’s underlying strength,” Wood said.
Wood pointed to revenue growing 39% year-over-year and total hours spent on the platform increasing 22% year-over-year in the first quarter. Daily active users were up 25% year-over-year in the quarter, including a 94% increase in the Asia Pacific region, Wood highlighted.
“In our view, Roblox will continue to scale globally as a user-first digital experience and gaming platform. Roblox provides and online entertainment platform that allows third-party creators and developers to create and monetize experiences and games.”
Roblox is the 19th-largest holding in the Ark Innovation ETF representing 2% of assets under management. Roblox is also the 13th-largest holding in the Ark Next Generation Internet ETF representing 3.1% of assets.
Roblox shares traded at $32.14 at the time of publication Thursday versus a 52-week range of $21.65 to $141.60. Shares of Roblox were down 67% year-to-date.
Photo: Andriy Blokhin via Shutterstock
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