Cathie Wood sells $2.29 million in popular tech stock

ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood just trimmed $2.29 million worth of Roku Inc. (ROKU) stock, at a point when it has been anything but quiet.

The move came Jan. 7, with Roku stock on an excellent run, delivering a 10% gain in the past month, as the broader market struggles.

For perspective, Roku was arguably the most popular rebound tech stock of 2025, posting a 42% gain last year, outperforming the S&P 500.

Additionally, Wood also enjoyed a banner year, with ARK Innovation (ARKK) surging nearly 38% in 2025, spearheaded by gains in AI, software, and other high-risk, high-reward plays.

As a result, Wood’s high-conviction approach has investors tracking her moves almost in real time.

Roku fits the bill and was on fire last year, backed by a robust recovery in advertising as well as profitability, and Wall Street’s renewed belief in connected TV as a long-term growth story.

Consequently, the stock became a regular feature in analyst notes, ETF inflows, and “top picks” lists. This is why a sizeable trim from Wood raises some eyebrows.

However, having covered Wood over the years, a trim in a stock like Roku is rarely a knee-jerk reaction.

In fact, it seems like classic active-manager behavior, where there’s active rebalancing after a stellar run, freeing up room for other big bets.

ARK’s Jan. 7 trades show Wood trimming a winner while looking to steadily load up on a newer, higher-risk bet.

• SoldRoku: ARK offloaded 20,203 shares, worth nearly $2.29 million, continuing a multi-year pattern of trimming the position. However, even after the sale, Roku is a top-three holding in ARKK, accounting for more than 5% of the portfolio.

• BoughtKodiak AI: ARK loaded up on 20,006 shares through the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF, which marked the third straight day of buying, underscoring conviction in the autonomous driving play.

A big part of why Roku’s stock went ballistic last year was that its story flipped from “popular platform” to “real profit engine.”

Perhaps the clearest proof was its superb FQ3 2025 showing.

Roku posted a whopping $1.2 billion in sales, up 14% year over year, with Platform sales (the business’s cash cow) jumping 17% to $1.065 billion.

Fund manager buys and sells

Margins followed.

Platform gross margin jumped to a superb 51.5% and streaming hours leapt to 36.5 billion, while The Roku Channel held the No. 2 app spot by U.S. engagement.

The big milestone for Wall Street, though, was profitability.

Roku reported $24.8 million in net income, bumped its outlook (along with $4.11 billion in full-year platform revenue), and talked about growing free cash flow per share, while buying back $50 million of its stock in the process, Hollywood Reporter noted.

Moreover, its exclusive Amazon Ads integration enabled advertisers to reach across nearly 80 million U.S. CTV households, posting 40% more unique viewers on the same budget.

Roku has been on a tear, as Wall Street’s no longer treating it as a low-margin gadget company.

That powerful shift helped Roku stock land on multiple top 2026 idea lists. Jefferies touted the platform’s potential, pointing to strong top-line growth.

Moreover, Wedbush added the stock to its “Best Ideas” list.

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The Wall Street giant says the ongoing shift in ad dollars away from traditional TV, along with Roku’s Amazon ad partnership, throws greater scale and reach, while 2026 election spending could offer a sizable lift.

Roku currently trades at around $110.30.

• Citizens:$145 (market outperform) — about 31% upside, says Investing.com

• Jefferies:$135 (buy) — roughly 22% upside; named a top small- and mid-cap internet pick.

• Morgan Stanley:$135 (overweight) — about 22% upside, on the back of a healthier 2026 ad market and CTV strength, indicated Investing.com

• Wedbush:$130 (outperform) — nearly 18% upside after adding Roku to its Best Ideas list, according to Barron’s

• Wells Fargo:$116 (overweight) — a more conservative 5% upside, per Investing.com

Election cycles don’t typically dominate the Roku story, but they could have a meaningful impact this year.

For ad-heavy platforms, political spending has historically been a high-margin, incremental revenue source, and 2026 could be a meaningful tailwind, especially for connected TV.

• Big money is coming: AdImpact forecasts a massive $10.84 billion in political and issue-ad spending for the 2026 midterms (connected TV at 23%), Axios reported. Streaming remains the fastest-growing bucket.

• The trend is accelerating: In the 2022 midterms, total spending reached $8.9 billion, with CTV at nearly $1.5 billion.

• Roku already sees the benefits: For perspective, political ads accounted for nearly 6% of Roku Platform sales in Q4 2024, a significant contribution with strong margins.

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This story was originally published by TheStreet on Jan 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Investing section. Add TheStreet as a Preferred Source by clicking here.