3 Stocks Cathie Wood Is Buying That Should Be on Your List Too

Cathie Wood’s investments continue to focus on innovation, but the popular investor hasn’t forgotten to find a great deal as well!

Amy Legate-Wolfe

Author Bio Amy became interested in investing in 2018 after having her first daughter. After receiving a masters degree in journalism from Western University, she became frustrated that the finance industry remained a confusing place for Canadians like her: new parents, millennials, and other young people who needed to understand their finances. Now, Amy focuses on tech companies and renewable energy for growth opportunities, coupling that with long-term investing strategies and equities. She also provides investors with a daily newsletter, Canada Stock Digest, for daily market updates. Her work can also be found at Canada's National Observer, where she writes on the business side of climate action. Before joining Motley Fool Canada, Amy wrote for major news organizations including HuffPost, CTVNews.ca, and CBC. When she’s not researching investing strategies, Amy’s time is pretty much monopolized by her two wild daughters, but in what little spare time she has she loves to do yoga, go on walks with her dog, and travel with her husband. Social Media Follow Amy on LinkedIn and Canada Stock Digest. Favorite Investment Quote “October: This is one of the particularly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August and February.” – Mark Twain

Published January 17, 2024 5:00 pm EST

Many Canadian investors are likely already familiar with Warren Buffett. However, you may not be as familiar with Cathie Wood. Cathie Wood is also one of the most popular investment strategists in the United States. And it’s why we turn our attention to Cathie Wood and her ARK Invest company.

Today, we’re going to look at the companies that Cathie Wood has been buying these days. Ones that show signs of strong innovation, which Cathie Wood focuses on, and why even Canadian investors can get in on this action.

Workers use a microscope to do medical research in a modern laboratory. — Source: Getty Images

CRISPR

First up we have CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CRSP), a healthcare company with a focus on gene editing. Yet in recent history, Cathie Wood is likely interested in the stock as an acquisition target. This comes after approval of Casgevy, a one-time treatment for sickle cell disease. And this could generate incredible revenue in the near future.

Yet the stock is down from all-time highs, with revenue shrinking in the recent past. Because of this, it could be a valuable acquisition target for the right buyer – and, therefore, an easy way to get in on the gene editing market.

As for today’s investor, it’s a great time to get in on CRISPR stock. It’s already on the path to recovery, has a solid future ahead with its Casgevy product, and could be part of an acquisition. Shares are up 24% in the last year alone, with even more growth ahead to help it reach its 52-week high.

Recursion

Another top stock in the healthcare sector that Cathie Wood is buying is Recursion Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: RXRX). This TechBio company has spent a decade “building one of the world’s largest biological and chemical datasets,” the company states. This will help future scientists “decode biology” and allow for a faster way of identifying the right solution to improve drug efficiency.

Recursion, however, recently outlined its new Large Language Model-Orchestrated Workflow Engine (LOWE), which is like artificial intelligence (AI) for biology and chemical data. With a faster workflow, the company can make faster discoveries, and therefore sell drugs faster. So no wonder shares have soared higher and higher.

However, this of course takes a lot of investment. The company continues to trade at a loss, with revenues expected to continue to be lower than in previous years. Even so, long-term investors such as Cathie Wood will likely see great things from this stock. For now, shares are still up by an impressive 22% in the last year.

Unity

Canadian investors can also check out Unity Software (NYSE: U) for something out of the healthcare sector. Cathie Wood recently invested in the game engine, despite going through quite a bit of drama over the last while. Unity stock cut 25% of its workforce during a company “restructure,” just last week. All while the stock continues to spiral.

However, it seems that Cathie Wood is using this spiral as an opportunity. Especially as an interm-chief executive officer (CEO) stepped in from IBM, and was already making changes. Specifically, the interm-CEO stated the company is trying to do too many things.

It’s unclear where the focus will be in the near future. And that focus likely won’t happen until Unity has a full-time CEO. But for now, investors such as Cathie Wood are taking this downturn as an opportunity ahead of what could be a huge turnaround in the future. Especially from an innovative company like Unity stock.