Cathie Wood seeks to regain momentum after standout performance in 2020 that established her as one of the country's prominent growth equity followers. Difficulties continue for the Ark Invest co-founder, CEO, and primary investor. Her exchange-traded funds have lagged the broader market in two of the prior three years, and she trails notably in 2024.

Her flagship fund sits 16 percent lower year to date, yet she presses forward. She began the fresh trading week with multiple portfolio adjustments on Monday. She increased stakes in Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Palantir (NYSE: PLTR), and PagerDuty (NYSE: PD) this week. Here is a closer examination.

1. Amazon

The top online retailer no longer delivers the rapid expansion seen across most of its initial 24 years as a public company. It has recorded positive net sales annually since its 1997 debut, though the 9 percent rise in 2022 and 12 percent revenue increase last year mark its two slowest annual periods across 27 years on the exchange.

Amazon chief Andy Jassy works to optimize this stage of the e-commerce firm's development. He enhances operational efficiency through expense reductions and explores AI applications to boost user interaction. Results show progress. Net sales advanced 13 percent in the opening quarter, while earnings more than tripled.

Image source: Getty Images.

Amazon remains formidable even amid subdued expansion. It generated 48.8 billion dollars in free cash flow across the trailing four quarters. Still, it withholds distributions to owners. It stands as the nation's largest firm by market value without a dividend program.

Shareholders accept this approach. They pursue price gains, and the equity has advanced 47 percent over the past year.

Amazon faces hurdles to differentiate in a tougher arena than before. Traditional retailers improve their online capabilities. Chinese platforms with deep discounts have gained traction. Net product sales grew only 7 percent in the first quarter. AWS cloud services and ancillary offerings drove overall results to double-digit expansion.

Amazon ranks among Ark Invest's smaller positions, which is unfortunate. The shares outperform the market this year and could have aided performance had Wood held a bigger allocation.

2. Palantir

Not every major Ark Invest position trades lower. Palantir, among Wood's ten largest combined holdings, leads the market this year. The intelligence software provider has nearly quadrupled since early last year.

Investors continue to recognize Palantir's prospects. The stock climbed 6 percent on Monday after Argus analyst Joseph Bonner began coverage with a buy rating. He notes that expansion into commercial markets beyond government roots broadens the opportunity set. Commercial revenue jumped 40 percent in the latest quarter, about twice the 21 percent total revenue rise.

Bonner expects earnings and cash flow to rise sharply this year, yet the valuation stays elevated. Palantir trades at 76 times the projected profit for this year and 63 times next year's estimate.

3. PagerDuty

Finally comes a holding that trades lower this year. The cloud enterprise analytics and monitoring specialist sits 8 percent in the red for 2024.

Revenue expansion has slowed for seven straight quarters, declining from 34 percent to 8 percent. Yet attitudes improve. The stock has gained nearly 20 percent since its recent low last month and received an analyst upgrade last week. PagerDuty remains down for the year but fared worse a month earlier. Analysts project revenue growth to pick up through the rest of 2024.