Zymergen Rallies 8% Pre-Market After Cathie Wood Buys 2.47 Million Shares

Cathie Wood raised eyebrows days ago when, in accordance with her “strategy” to simply buy any stock getting media coverage that falls precipitously, she bought over $45 million in shares of new IPO Robinhood.

Today, Wood is laughing all the way to the bank after Robinhood staged a Reddit rally/gamma squeeze on Wednesday, driving shares to $70 from its IPO price of $38, where the stock had trouble maintaining a bid earlier this week. Despite insiders filling to sell nearly 100 million Robinhood shares on Thursday morning, the stock was still around $60, rewarding Wood’s “outside the box” thinking to buy the dip with a healthy profit. 

And that wasn’t the only time Wood employed her “strategy” of buying whatever when there’s blood in the streets. Zymergen is rallying 7% in the pre-market session on Thursday after it was announced that Wood’s Ark Investment Management funds bought around 2.47 million shares, according to Bloomberg.

Zymergen plunged 76% on Wednesday after the company announced it wouldn’t generate product revenue until after 2021 and that revenue for this year would be “immaterial”. It also announced its CEO, who is also the company’s co-founder, was stepping down. We can see why Wood was anxious to scoop up shares: a pre-revenue company with a revolving door of executives. Probably checked off many of the boxes of Wood’s “value stock” checklist!

To date, the company has earned “almost nothing for product sales,” CNBC wrote yesterday.

The incoming CEO, Jay Flatley, said: “We are disappointed by these developments, and the board and management team are focused on resolving the underlying issues to ensure Zymergen moves forward as a stronger company with a compelling operating plan. We are confident in Zymergen’s opportunities and prospects, although it will take longer to accomplish our goals than previously expected.”

Also in the name are bagholders investors from the Softbank Vision Fund, as well as Wood’s compadres from Tesla over at Baillie Gifford & Co. The company went public at $31 per share and was trading under $10 in the Thursday morning session.