ARK’s CRISPR Sale: Timing the Market’s Mood

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Let me tell you about the time I tried to grow basil on my windowsill. I bought the priciest organic soil, whispered affirmations to the seedlings, and yet-within weeks-they’d wilted into what can only be described as green despair. This, friends, is how I imagine Cathie Wood’s relationship with CRISPR Therapeutics feels right now. On Nov. 12, ARK Investment Management quietly offloaded 395,617 shares of the gene-editing darling, a move that whispers, “We adore the science, but darling, the stock has been acting like a melodramatic teenager at a family reunion.”

Now, I’ll admit I’ve never owned a single share of CRISPR. My own portfolio resembles a thrift store bin-lots of mystery, minimal value-but I do understand the agony of watching something you love underperform. Take CRISPR’s stock price: up 0.64% over the past year while the S&P 500 zoomed past it like a Tesla on Autopilot. It’s the financial equivalent of being left at the prom while your date goes home with a blockchain ETF.

Here’s where I pretend to understand 13F filings. ARK’s remaining 9.78 million-share stake-worth $634.29 million as of September-now sits at 3.78% of its reportable assets. Not top-five material, apparently. The fund’s current favorites read like a Silicon Valley bingo card: Tesla, Coinbase, Roku, Palantir, and Roblox. Because nothing says “long-term vision” like doubling down on a video game platform where children buy virtual hats. 🧢

CRISPR’s business model, for the uninitiated, involves slicing and dicing DNA like a molecular sous-chef. They’re working on cures for blood disorders, cancer therapies, and regenerative medicines. Noble work, sure, but their revenue last year could barely buy Elon Musk’s yacht. And their net loss of $488.3 million? That’s enough to make even the most optimistic venture capitalist clutch their pearls. 🦪

Analysts say the sale was “prescient” since shares dropped 15% post-September. But let’s not crown ARK the market-timing Mozart just yet. Remember when they bought the dip in Bitcoin right before it dipped again? Sometimes you’re not a genius; sometimes you’re just rolling dice in a very expensive casino. Still, with $139 million magically added to their position despite the sell-off, ARK’s playing 4D chess while we’re stuck trying to open a brokerage account without two-factor authentication. 📱

Me? I’ll stick to my windowsill experiments. At least when my basil dies, I can blame it on the sun. The market’s indifference to CRISPR’s scientific wizardry, though-that’s the kind of heartbreak no tax deduction can fix. 🧬

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2025-11-13 01:18