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Cathie Wood has struggled to beat the market after a blowout 2020 put her Ark Invest family of exchange-traded funds on the map. As the co-founder, CEO, and investment manager, she keeps making moves to try to regain Ark's winning ways.

She continues to add to her existing positions. Wood bought shares in Shopify (NYSE: SHOP), Blade Air Mobility (NASDAQ: BLDE), and Tempus AI (NASDAQ: TEM) on Monday. Let's take a closer look at her latest purchases.

1. Shopify

It's not just Cathie Wood who's having an off year. Shopify shares are trading 18% lower, a rough slide in an otherwise buoyant 2024. It doesn't help that the popular e-commerce platform also happens to be one of Ark Invest's 10 largest holdings across its combined portfolio.

Shopify took a 19% hit on May 10, the day after posting disappointing first-quarter results. Put another way, Shopify shares have risen 1% this year if you back out one unfortunate trading day.

But is this year's sell-off just a case of one bad trading day? Well, there's a lot going on at Shopify right now.

Revenue climbed 23% in the first quarter, up 29% if you adjust for the logistics business that it walked away from last year. Shopify's top- and bottom-line results exceeded expectations, but guidance was another story. Shopify's outlook for the second quarter calls for a slowing of year-over-year revenue growth to the high teens. That's a far cry for a company that rattled off at least nine years of top-line annual revenue growth of 47% or better until 2022.

Business is slowing, but did the correction go too far on the way down? Shares started to bounce back last month. CEO Tobi Lütke announced on social media on June 11 that Shopify has surpassed $1 trillion in cumulative gross merchandise volume. The timing of the post had one analyst suggest that Shopify will exceed its initially disappointing top-line guidance.

A order on @SaltandSundry just tipped Shopify over the 1 trillion(!) in cumulative GMV.

Monumental milestone for us. A beautiful small business run by Amanda McClemens in DC. Couldn't have been a better example of what makes Shopify special: https://t.co/Yz8o3p5nGO

-- tobi lutke (@tobi) June 11, 2024

Wood isn't the only Shopify believer this week. Shweta Khajuria at Wolfe Research initiated coverage of the stock after the market closed on Monday. Khajuria thinks Shopify is building on its e-commerce leadership position. The firm's $80 price target suggests 25% of upside, more than enough to overcome the year-to-date slide.

2. Blade Air Mobility

Wood is a believer in short-range air travel. She owns shares in a couple of companies that lean on helicopters and next-gen electric aircraft to provide cost-effective air transportation through metropolitan markets with heavy road congestion. Blade Air Mobility is one of the more established players.

Unlike many of the glitzier names with high-tech aircraft, Blade Air is already generating revenue. Revenue rose 14% to $51.5 million in its latest quarter, primarily from its on-demand helicopter transport services. Like Shopify, Blade Air is also trading lower in 2024.

3. Tempus AI

It's been a month since Tempus AI went public. Championing the practical application of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare, Tempus went public at $37. It traded as high as $43.88 on its first day of trading, but a little more than a week later the stock could be had in the low $20s. It closed at $36.60 on Monday, essentially a round trip to nowhere in its first month of public trading.

The stock tumbled 8% on Monday, and that apparently was a dinner bell for Wood. Why the fall? The company didn't post disappointing financial results, and it has yet to announce its first quarterly results as a public company. Nor is it facing the end of a lock-up period enabling insiders to sell. That won't happen until December. There also wasn't a negative analyst note, either. But with Tempus trading roughly around its IPO price, it was predictable to see many of the firms responsible for underwriting the offering come out with bullish notes last week.

Tempus is certainly an interesting company. Using generative AI to crank out intelligent diagnostics could be a game changer in the way healthcare pros treat their patients. Last week it announced a significant milestone, topping 500 million research publications detailing its diagnostic offerings. It also helps that Tempus is bankrolled by two of the world's largest online tech companies.

So volatility will have to do for now. A $6 billion market cap for a company that's at least three years away from profitability is not without its risks, but Wood doesn't have a problem with risky stocks in the pursuit of major returns.

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Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Shopify. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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