10 Worst ARK Stocks To Buy According to Short Sellers

8. Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM)

Short Interest as % of  Shares Outstanding: 14.45%

Number of Hedge Fund Investors In Q3 2024: 24

Ark Invest’s Q3 2024 Stake: $160 million

Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM) is another biotechnology play in Cathie Wood’s portfolio. It is a classic genomic play, the riskiness of which Wood has admitted as we alluded to in our introduction to this piece. Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM) earns revenue through license and collaboration at this point, which makes it unsurprising that short interest is high in the company. The firm’s revenue structure also means that it is a long-term play that will not yield immediate results in the absence of dramatic catalysts. The catalyst might come from Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM)’s leading drug candidate BEAM-101. This drug targets sickle cell disease and thalassemia, two of the most complicated illnesses in healthcare. As a result, any success in developing drugs could propel Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM) to new heights. On the flip side, negative outcomes such as the death of a patient in the trial might make investors scurry to other stocks. The firm also benefits from hefty cash and equivalents of $1.1 billion that can help it fund expenses for quite some time.

Beam Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:BEAM)’s management commented on its sickle cell treatment during the Q3 2024 earnings call. Here is what they said:

“In sickle cell disease, we have a validated regulatory pathway available for BEAM-101, which the BEACON trial is designed to pursue. We also have a next generation program using our ESCAPE technology designed to expand the addressable patient population by eliminating chemotherapy from transplant. Beginning today and continuing at ASH, we’re reporting the first clinical data from our hematology franchise. Initial data from our BEACON Phase 1/2 trial support the potential for meaningful clinical differentiation of BEAM-101 compared to currently available treatments for sickle cell disease. We will also be reporting non-human primate data for our ESCAPE technology that validate our vision of enabling gene editing and stem cell transplant, using only antibody based conditioning avoiding chemotherapy altogether.”