The space exploration and innovation ETF of Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest began trading earlier this year in March. At the time, the ARKX fund had a stake worth 672,000 shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE: SPCE).
In subsequent weeks, the space exploration ETF continued to offload its stake in Virgin Galactic until it was left with only twelve shares of the pure-play space stock. On Wednesday, ARKX sold these last remaining shares as well to effectively part ways with Sir Richard Branson’s publicly traded aerospace company.
Virgin Galactic is facing intense competition from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin
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Virgin Galactic tanked below $23 a share (£16.28 per share) in mid-April, after which Cathie Wood’s firm slashed its stake in the spaceflight company by roughly 50%. The U.S. firm is facing intense competition from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin that is scheduled to launch its 1st crewed space tourism flight on 20th July – an announcement that threatened Virgin Galactic’s first-mover advantage.
Earlier in May, Virgin Galactic slipped further to about $15 a share, representing a close to 50% decline since March, when ARKX fund originally took a stake in it. Consequently, Ark Invest cut the majority of its remaining stake in the American space tourism company in mid-May.
Virgin Galactic’s first successful human spaceflight from New Mexico
The news comes only days after Virgin Galactic’s first successful human spaceflight from New Mexico, after two delays in December 2020 and February 2021. Commenting on it on Monday, CEO Michael Golglazier said:
“Today’s flight showcased the inherent elegance and safety of our spaceflight system while marking a major step forward for both Virgin Galactic and human spaceflight in New Mexico.â€
Following the success, Virgin Galactic regained strength this week with a more than 30% gain in the stock market so far. Considering the spaceflight test as a positive catalyst, Canaccord Genuity gave Virgin Galactic a ‘buy’ rating as it started coverage of the California-headquartered company on Wednesday.
Virgin Galactic opened at $25.88 per share on Wednesday and is currently exchanging hands at $27.42 per share. In comparison, the stock printed a year-to-date high of close to $60 per share in early February after starting the year at a much lower $23.21 per share.
Virgin Galactic performed massively upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of more than 100%. At the time of writing, it has a market cap of $6.60 billion.
