Cathie Wood buys battered tech stock after earnings
Cathie Wood, co-founder, CEO, and chief investment officer of ARK Invest, has a long history of buying disruptive growth stocks she believes are capable of shaping the future.
She's not afraid to double down on high-growth tech names during periods of extreme volatility. It's a core part of ARK's investment strategy, targeting companies she believes have strong long-term potential, even as short-term price swings spook other investors.
For Wood, sharp pullbacks offer discounted entry points into companies that operate in transformative industries such as artificial intelligence, electric vehicles, blockchain, and programmatic advertising.
Still, Wood raised eyebrows across Wall Street this week by adding more than 725,000 shares of Trade Desk () across her firm's actively managed ETFs.
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The timing was no coincidence; Trade Desk stock fell 38.6% on Friday after the ad-tech specialist's latest earnings report disappointed investors.
Wood's move, however, indicates continued confidence in the California-based digital advertising platform despite a weaker-than-expected outlook, earnings miss, and a surprise C-suite change.
ARK Innovation ETF leads Trade Desk buying spree
According to ARK Invest's daily trading disclosures, Wood's flagship ARK Innovation ETF () bought 535,292 shares of Trade Desk on Friday. The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF () added another 203,075 shares.
This marks ARK's first Trade Desk purchase since mid-February, when Wood's team bought shares following another post-earnings drop of 33%.
Following these trades, Trade Desk is now ARKK's 27th-largest holding, with 1.57 million shares valued at roughly $85 million. In ARKW, it's now the 29th-largest position, with 523,000 shares worth around $28 million.
What triggered Trade Desk's stock crash?
Trade Desk's nearly 40% drop this time came as its second-quarter results and forward outlook disappointed investors.
Revenue climbed 19% year over year to $694 million, ahead of the company's forecast and beating consensus estimates for $682 million. That translated to adjusted earnings of $0.41 per share, up 5% year over year but a penny per share below Wall Street's models.
The company's forward outlook proved more disappointing, with management calling for Q3 revenue to climb just 14% year over year to $717 million.
That would mark the second straight quarterly deceleration in top-line growth, serving as a red flag for investors, given what analysts note have been generally strong results from other ad-tech firms in recent weeks.
Finally, Trade Desk also recently announced the departure of its longtime CFO, Laura Schenkein, raising concerns about leadership stability.
The combination of its earnings disappointment, light outlook, and executive turnover triggered one of the stock's steepest single-day declines in years.A familiar ARK Invest playbook
This isn't the first time Wood has bought heavily into falling stocks. ARK frequently adds to its existing positions in disruptive growth companies immediately after major selloffs, effectively betting that the market is overreacting to short-term challenges.
Whether that conviction will pay off hinges on Trade Desk's ability to stabilize growth, maintain its historic dominance in the programmatic advertising market, and navigate its executive transition as smoothly as possible.
If Wood's timing proves correct, ARK's habit of buying the dip could deliver significant returns as investor sentiment improves. The purchase also reinforced ARK's high-conviction, high-volatility approach, which often runs counter to broader market behavior.
For now, Wood's aggressive buying of Trade Desk stock after yet another enormous post-earnings selloff is a high-risk, potentially high-reward play that aligns perfectly with ARK Invest's contrarian style.Cathie Wood buys battered tech stock after earnings first appeared on TheStreet on Aug 12, 2025
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Aug 12, 2025, where it first appeared.
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