Cathie Wood is doubling down on biotech, but investors looking beyond her ARK Genomic Revolution ETF (BATS:ARKG) have several other ways to gain exposure to the same companies.
ARKG bought about $4.5 million of Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:IONS), nearly $3 million of Veracyte Inc (NASDAQ:VCYT), roughly $2.6 million of Beam Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:BEAM) and about $1.9 million of Scribe Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:SCTX) on Monday. The ETF also sold more than $2.5 million of 10x Genomics Inc (NASDAQ:TXG).
The transactions highlight an increasingly important pocket of the biotech ETF market, funds targeting genomics, gene editing and precision medicine.
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ARKG Isn’t the Only ETF With These Biotech Bets
ARKG is the most concentrated way to access Wood’s latest purchases. The ETF holds about 2.93% in Beam, 1.84% in Veracyte and 1.62% in Ionis. Scribe accounted for roughly 0.6% of the portfolio based on recent holdings data.
But investors can also find these companies in more conventional biotech and genomics ETFs.
The Global X Genomics & Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ:GNOM), for example, holds 1.75% in Beam and 2.33% in Veracyte. That gives investors exposure to two of Wood’s latest biotech purchases through a fund that spreads its portfolio across 50-plus genomics and biotechnology companies.
The Invesco Biotechnology & Genome ETF (NYSE:PBE) also holds Veracyte, with the stock accounting for roughly 2.76% of the fund.
The First Trust NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index Fund (NYSE:FBT) provides another interesting overlap.
Veracyte represents about 2.16% of FBT’s portfolio. FBT holds 30 biotechnology companies and is rebalanced quarterly, giving it a substantially different construction from ARKG’s actively managed genomic-revolution strategy.
That difference matters. ARKG is designed around ARK’s active view of genomic innovation, whereas FBT tracks an index of biotechnology companies selected using revenue and research-and-development criteria.
For investors looking for broader biotech exposure, the SPDR S&P Biotech ETF (NYSE:XBI) is another fund to watch.
Ionis represents about 0.67% of XBI. XBI has about $10.6 billion in assets and 154 holdings, making its exposure far more diversified than ARKG.
That creates an interesting contrast. Wood is making relatively targeted bets on individual companies, while XBI spreads exposure across the biotechnology industry through a modified equal-weight approach.
Scribe Is the Most Specialized Bet
Scribe Therapeutics makes the ETF overlap particularly interesting.
The company only began trading publicly in July, following its IPO, and is developing in-vivo CRISPR-based genetic medicines. Its lead program, STX-1150, is designed to reduce LDL cholesterol by epigenetically silencing PCSK9.
ARKG is currently the dominant ETF holder of SCTX, although Scribe also appears in small weights in several other thematic ETFs, including the Tema Healthcare AI ETF (NASDAQ:HLTH) whose top holding is 10x Genomics.
That makes SCTX different from IONS, BEAM and VCYT. The ETF opportunity around Scribe is still relatively concentrated, reflecting the company’s recent arrival on the public market.
The ETF Takeaway
Wood’s latest trades therefore offer more than another snapshot of ARK’s portfolio.
They highlight three distinct ETF approaches to biotech. ARKG provides concentrated exposure to genomic innovation, GNOM combines genomics and biotechnology, while XBI offers a broader basket of biotech companies. FBT adds an index-based approach with a focus on established biotechnology names.
For ETF investors, the key distinction is therefore not simply which funds own Ionis, Beam, Veracyte or Scribe. It is how much exposure each ETF provides and what broader biotech themes sit alongside those holdings.
Wood’s latest purchases suggest that rare diseases, precision medicine and gene-editing companies remain important parts of the genomic-investment theme, but investors can access those themes through ETFs with very different portfolio construction and concentration profiles.
Photo: Ark Invest
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