Rocket Lab USA Inc. [NASDAQ: RKLB] touched an all-time high of $123.94 on May 11, surging 15% in a single session and marking the strongest trading day in the stock’s history.

Yet ARK Invest had already been reducing its exposure in the days before that move, selling 113,402 shares on the prior Friday and another 50,312 shares on April 27 through its ARKQ fund.

At the prices of those two transactions, the combined disposals involved roughly 163,700 shares and generated approximately $13.6 million in proceeds.

ARK’s playbook in situations like this is well-established: the firm lets high-conviction positions run, then trims when they become too large or too extended relative to the rest of the portfolio, and recycles the capital into earlier-stage opportunities with more perceived upside.

True to form, ARK used the Rocket Lab sale to add to Intellia Therapeutics, purchasing 263,848 shares of NTLA across ARKK and ARKG, worth roughly $3.6 million.

This is not the first time Wood has trimmed Rocket Lab into a rally, as in November 2024, ARK sold nearly $9 million of RKLB shares during a 28% surge, a move that looked premature in hindsight because the stock kept climbing afterward.

The underlying business case for Rocket Lab remains powerful, with first-quarter 2026 revenue of $200.3 million representing 63.5% year-over-year growth and the company exiting the quarter with a record $2.2 billion backlog.

During the quarter, Rocket Lab signed 31 Electron and HASTE contracts plus five dedicated Neutron launches, bringing its total contracted manifest to more than 70 missions.

A standout development was the disclosure of an $816 million Space Development Agency award for 18 satellites, one of the clearest signals yet that Rocket Lab is evolving well beyond a pure launch services company.

Neutron remains the biggest catalyst on the horizon, though the company’s latest 10-K revealed a January tank failure pushed the first launch target to Q4 2026, meaning the stock’s next major leg will likely depend on execution rather than expectation alone.

Analysts remain broadly constructive, with Stifel’s Erik Rasmussen lifting his price target to $105 and maintaining a Buy rating, though the stock now trades well above the analyst consensus target of $94.96.

Retail investors considering following ARK’s lead should note that mechanically tracking Wood’s sales has historically been a losing strategy in this name, as RKLB has repeatedly kept rallying after ARK trimmed.

At the same time, Rocket Lab set up a $1 billion equity distribution agreement in March, introducing dilution risk that deserves consideration at current levels significantly above the average analyst target.