Virgin Galactic Jumps on ARK Investments' Space ETF Plans
Virgin Galactic (SPCE) - Get Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc Report shares are taking off after well-known exchange-traded fund provider ARK Investments filed to launch a space exploration ETF.
Virgin Galactic shares surged more than 12% in premarket trading on Thursday after ARK Investment Management filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to launch a space exploration exchange-traded fund.
While ARK didn't identify which companies it will hold in the space exploration-focused fund, expectations are that Virgin Galactic would be one of the fund’s holdings.
According to the filing, ARK’s actively managed ETF will invest 80% in stocks engaged in the investment theme of space exploration and innovation, defined as “leading, enabling or benefitting from technologically enabled products and/or services that occur beyond the surface of the Earth.”
Other space-exploration companies also gained on Thursday following ARK’s filing, including New Providence Acquisition and Stable Road Acquisition, two special-purpose acquisition vehicle companies also focused on beyond-Earth endeavors.
To be sure, Virgin Galactic is far from being on a profitable trajectory. The Las Cruces, N.M.-based company founded and partly owned by Richard Branson suffered a miss last month when a test flight was abandoned because of a technical problem.
It also revealed in a regulatory filing last month that shareholders may sell up to 112,964,840 of Virgin Galactic, the proceeds of which would not remain with the company.
