Zymergen Can Thank Cathie Wood for Its Head-Spinning Turnaround

(Bloomberg) — Zymergen Inc. rallied as much as 87% from Wednesday’s record rout after one of Cathie Wood’s Ark Investment Management LLC funds scooped up shares.

The buying occurred amid Wednesday’s jaw-dropping 76% retreat, a record drop that took the shares to the lowest since its April IPO after the company pulled its forecast for 2021 sales and announced the departure of the chief executive and co-founder.

Zymergen said it was working to restore investor trust, but Wall Street piled on the criticism and stock downgrades. William Blair’s Matt Larew said Zymergen’s credibility was “destroyed.” Shares have lost more than 50% since going public at $31 a share in April.

The synthetic biology company’s stock triggered a trading halt at the market open after word that the retail-trading guru’s ARK Genomic Revolution fund, which trades as ARKG, had snapped up 2.47 million shares. Thursday’s gains meant the Emeryville, California-based company had followed up its worst day of market losses with it’s biggest one-day gain.

The ARKG ETF has peeled off about 5% so far this year with some of the fund’s biggest bets like Teladoc Health Inc., Exact Sciences Corp. and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. posting double-digit declines.

Other high profile Zymergen backers include the SoftBank Vision Fund LP with about a 27% stake as of April 26, according to Bloomberg data, as well as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC Pte Ltd and U.K. fund behemoth Baillie Gifford & Co.

Ark didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

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