With the market flattening out over the past month, Wood and her ARK Invest, which has more than $40bn in assets under management, have been busy buying stocks.

So, let take look at a couple of stocks that Wood has been buying and one that she has sold.

Twilio

Twilio (NASDAQ:TWLO) is an US company, providing programmable communication tools for the telecommunications industry using its web service APIs. It makes your smart phone apps smarter by allowing them to seamlessly connect with one another.

Like many other growth stocks, Twilio’s shares have fallen, down 77% over the past 12 months.

However, this belies some fairly positive performance data. In its last reported quarter, Twilio’s organic revenue rose 35%, above expectations. But net income for the quarter was -$221m. So there’s clearly some distance to go before this company becomes profitable.

In June, Scotiabank initiated coverage of Twilio at “outperform“. The brokerage set a target price of $215, implying 162% upside from today’s share price.

Wood bought more Twilio stock on Thursday.

Exact Sciences

Exact Sciences (NASDAQ:EXAS) is a molecular diagnostics company specialising in the detection of early stage cancers. There’s clearly huge potential for the company’s products, with cancer one of the biggest killers in the developed world.

The company received a boost last week when a new Medicare fee schedule was proposed. Previously, if individuals received a positive result with Exact Sciences’s Cologuard, they would have to pay for a follow-up colonoscopy. But under the new proposal, that fee is scrapped. Several analysts think this could boost the utility of Cologuard.

The stock is down a whopping 58% over the past 12 months. Whether the product will truly catch on is an issue for me.

Wood bought more Exact Sciences stock on Thursday.

CRISPR Therapeutics

Wood sold shares in CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) on Wednesday. The stock is up 33% over the past month but remains down 34% over the past year.

The stock has been pretty volatile in recent months. The firm recently held an innovation day to showcase its entire drug pipeline. However, CRISPR’s kidney cancer trial data did not impress investors and the stock tanked.

However, it’s been gaining since then on the back of news that the firm will be able to commercialise the first ever CRISPR gene therapy, a functional cure for TDT and sickle cell disease, in the coming months. 

While the company didn’t generate traditional sales in 2021, it generated plenty of revenue in research milestone agreements. In fact, it has a price-to-sales ratio of 5.8 for the trailing 12 months versus an industry average of 4.1. 

What’s does this mean for me?

I predominately invest in FTSE stocks, but I keep an eye on Wood’s portfolio. CRISPR Therapeutics is a stock I had been looking to add to my portfolio, but I was put off by the early stage cancer data back in June.

I haven’t had much exposure to Exact Sciences or Twilio, but I’d be willing to add the latter to my portfolio.

The Nasdaq, which is heavy on growth and tech stocks, saw some pretty steep declines. But, so did other indexes, including the NYSE. For me, this dip represents an opportunity to buy.

So here are some growth stocks on the US index that I’m looking to add to my portfolio. 

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co 

The undisputed king of semiconductor manufacturing is trading 7% lower following the June sell-off. While listed on the NYSE, it was clearly impacted by the Nasdaq rout.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM) is a hugely profitable growth stock and the company registered record revenue in Q1.

It has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of around 19, which is cheaper than the industry average. Investors have likely factored in TSM’s risky and aggressive growth strategy. 

There’s also some geopolitical risk. China has reiterated its desire to bring Taiwan back under the control of the mainland. 

Despite this, TSM is the leading chip manufacturer both in terms of output and technology. 

Li Auto

Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI) shares, like other Chinese EV manufacturers, have done pretty well over the past month. This is largely because of the Chinese economy appearing more open than it did at the beginning of May. But Chinese growth stocks also received a boost after an apparent government U-turn on indigenous soft tech. 

However, there’s a lot of volatility. Shares in Li Auto and peer NIO have jumped up and down over the past two weeks. And this creates opportunity. I want to buy Li Auto for the long run, but I’m watching the share price for an opportunity to buy. 

The firm is on an impressive growth curve. Li Auto revenue for the quarter ending 31 March was $1.5bn, an impressive 307.89% increase year-on-year. 

Lockdowns could hurt production but, in the long run, I think this Chinese manufacturer will prosper. 

CRISPR Therapeutics

CRISPR Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CRSP) has actually done rather well over the past month, but I still think there’ll be a good opportunity to buy amid the current volatility. Investment expert Cathie Wood has actually bought shares multiple times for her Ark Invest (NYSEMKT:ARKK) portfolio. 

It’s definitely a speculative pick as governments and regulators around the world have been hesitant to back gene therapy treatments. However, the technology certainly has plenty of uses. CRISPR Therapeutics plans on submitting its candidate treatment for blood disorders for regulatory approval at the end of this year. 

The gene editing treatment could be used to treat numerous diseases in the future. Scientists have been working to engineer immune cells to seek and destroy cancer cells.

After last week’s sell-off, Ark Invest started this week by purchasing shares several companies, including the three listed below.

All three are considerably down on their 2021 highs, and were pushed lower last week on the back of higher than expected US inflation data.

So, what was she buying? Wood added to her existing exchange-traded fund stakes in CRISPR Therapeutics (NYSE:CRSP), Invitae Corporation (NYSE:NVTA), and Pacific Biosciences (NASDAQ:PACB).

CRISPR Therapeutics

CRISPR Therapeutics is a biotech company using gene therapy to try to correct genetic mutations to treat and cure diseases. The firm has a market cap of around $4.28bn, but is down 57.1% over the past 12 months.

CRISPR (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a technology that can be used to edit genes. It’s considered more efficient than other technologies out there.

CRISPR plans on submitting its candidate treatment for blood disorders for regulatory approval at the end of this year. The company has also partnered with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, and reported positive clinical trial data with candidate products in sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia.

It could be a big winner, however, it will carry a lot of risk until it gains regulatory approval. The business itself has noted caution on the part of regulators with regards to gene therapy treatments.

Invitae Corporation

Invitae stock reached $61 a share last year before collapsing. It now trades for just $2.32. The stock is down 92% over the past year.

The biotechnology company does genetic screening and hopes to bring its product to billions of people. Invitae’s screening looks to highlight whether individuals have higher risk profiles for hereditary cancer and rare genetic diseases, among other illnesses.

Oncology is a major part of the business, accounting for almost two-thirds of its revenue in the first quarter.

The firm is in an interesting position after its stock price crash. It has a market cap of just short of $500m, but had $885 million in cash at the end of the first quarter. However, Invitae doesn’t anticipate being cash flow positive until 2025.

Pacific Biosciences

Pacific Biosciences is a biotech firm that develops and manufactures systems for gene sequencing and real time biological observation.

This stock has also crashed over the past year, from highs of $36 to the current $4.32. The stock is down 84% over the past year.

In 2019, Pacific Biosciences launched its Sequel II genome sequencing system, that offers eight times the data output of its older model. It also brought accuracy in line with traditional sequencing methods.

One issue is that the company is spending almost all of its revenue on development at the moment. Last year, it spent $113m. In 2021, the firm generated $130m in revenue.

On my to-do list

Given Wood’s interest in these stocks, I’ll be taking a closer look myself to see if any of them would be right for my portfolio. Biotechs are a bit new to me, so I’d want to do my research to understand both the risks and opportunities in the field.