Cathie Wood Is Selling This High-Flying Stock. Is It a Buy?

Cathie Wood's exchange-traded funds (ETFs) ended June by selling $11.2 million worth of stock in synthetic DNA manufacturer Twist Bioscience (NASDAQ: TWST). On June 30, across its Ark Innovation ETF and Ark Genomic Revolution ETF, over 114,000 shares were sold. That was on the heels of more than 84,000 shares being sold previously in the month.

Hearing that so much stock is being sold can feel concerning, as shareholders may worry that Wood has found a problem with the company that they don't know about. But there could also be not-so-worrisome reasons why the Ark ETFs are selling Twist Bioscience.

Cathie Wood, Ark Investment Management CEO. Image source: Getty Images.

Ark's portfolio management

Ark's ETFs are actively managed, with stakes in companies worth millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. While selling over $11 million worth of a stock sounds significant, it also needs to be taken in context of just how much Twist Ark owns.

As of July 15, the Ark Genomic Revolution ETF held more than $121 million worth of Twist, and it was that ETF's third-largest holding. In addition, the Ark Innovation ETF holds over $211 million worth of Twist.

The size of those stakes suggests Ark hasn't lost confidence in the biotech company and may just be taking gains off the table to add to new positions. As of this writing, over the last six months, Twist Bioscience stock has climbed over 120% and more than 190% on the year.

When Ark sold $11.2 million worth of Twist Bioscience on June 30, Wood's ETFs also purchased $3.9 million worth of Circle Internet Group and $3.6 million worth of SoFi Technologies. That same day, Ark Innovation ETF and Ark Genomic Revolution each bought shares of Recursion Pharmaceuticals for $2.2 million.

That would all point to Ark freeing up capital and adding to other positions without necessarily viewing anything as being wrong with Twist Bioscience.

Ark sells, but is Twist a buy?

By manufacturing synthetic DNA on silicon chips, Twist Bioscience can help reduce research costs and accelerate discoveries across industries ranging from medicine to agriculture. Offering a nod of validation to its offerings, Amazon included Twist as one of its partners in its Amazon Bio Discovery application for testing new drugs.

Its sales are picking up steam, with 13 consecutive quarters of sequential revenue growth, and sales are also expected to jump from $376.6 million in 2025 to a range of $442 million to $447 million in 2026.

The catch is that owning Twist shares is for investors who can handle high risk. The company keeps reporting net losses,and if it reports setbacks in any upcoming quarterly report, its 190% return thus far in 2026 could face a fast and sharp reversal. A Twist investment could be a smaller, speculative addition to a portfolio, but it should be based on an investor's comfort level and understanding of the company's upside and risks, not on what Ark Invest and Cathie Wood are doing.

Jack Delaney has positions in SoFi Technologies. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Twist Bioscience. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.