We recently published a list of Ark Invest Stock Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks to Buy. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) stands against other top stocks to buy from Ark Invest's portfolio.

ARK Investment Management LLC, commonly known as ARK Invest, is an American investment management firm headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida. Founded by Cathie Wood in 2014, the firm specializes in actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) focused on disruptive innovation. As of Q4 2024, ARK holds over $12 billion in 13F securities, with its top ten positions comprising slightly over 50% of its diversified portfolio, which typically comprises between 35 and 55 holdings. The firm’s investment approach spans various market capitalizations, sectors, and geographies, aiming to identify and invest in companies poised to lead in transformative technological advancements.

Cathie Wood, born Catherine Duddy Wood in 1955, is widely recognized as one of the most influential figures in the investment industry. As the founder, CEO, and chief investment officer of ARK Investment Management, she has carved out a reputation for her innovative and forward-thinking investment strategies. Wood’s approach to investing has consistently focused on identifying and capitalizing on disruptive innovation, setting her apart as a visionary in the financial sector.

After graduating from the Notre Dame Academy Catholic girls’ school, Wood pursued higher education at the University of Southern California (USC), where she earned a summa cum laude degree in finance and economics in 1981. She later completed a Master of Business Administration in finance at USC’s Marshall School of Business. A key influence in her academic journey was economist Arthur Laffer, known for the Laffer Curve, which theorizes the relationship between tax rates and tax revenue. Laffer’s mentorship helped shape Wood’s understanding of economic theory and her investment philosophy.

Wood’s career in finance took off after graduation, with roles at prestigious firms such as Jennison Associates, where she spent 18 years in various leadership roles, and Capital Group, as an assistant economist. At AllianceBernstein, where she managed over $5 billion, she honed her ability to identify long-term growth trends. Despite criticism of her investment decisions during the 2008 financial crisis, Wood remained steadfast in her belief that disruptive innovation would drive the future of economic growth. She later went on to co-found Tupelo Capital Management, a hedge fund focused on global thematic strategies.

In 2014, Cathie Wood founded ARK Invest with the goal of focusing exclusively on disruptive innovation and seizing the investment opportunities it generates. Her pioneering move involved structuring actively managed investment strategies as exchange-traded funds (ETFs), an industry-first approach that allowed a broader range of investors to participate in emerging technologies. She recognized that investing in such transformative technologies requires active management to navigate rapid changes, an open research ecosystem unrestricted by sectors, geographies, or market capitalizations to capture technological convergence, and the sharing of knowledge to deepen understanding of emerging industries. Reflecting these principles, ARK stands for Active Research Knowledge—a philosophy that underpins the firm’s investment approach.

Accordingly, ARK’s investment philosophy is centered around thematic investing in disruptive innovation, leveraging over 40 years of experience in identifying high-growth opportunities. ARK defines disruptive innovation as the introduction of technologically enabled products or services that significantly alter existing industries. The firm’s research process focuses on cross-sector innovations such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, Fintech, robotics, energy storage, DNA sequencing, 3D printing, and blockchain technology. ARK’s goal is to seek long-term capital appreciation by investing in these cutting-edge industries, believing that companies driving technological advancements will fundamentally reshape industries and offer outsized returns compared to traditional investment strategies.

Our Methodology

The stocks discussed below were picked from Ark Invest’s Q4 2024 13F filings. They are compiled in the ascending order of the hedge fund’s stake in them as of December 31, 2024. To assist readers with more context, we have included the hedge fund sentiment regarding each stock using data from 1,009 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

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Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders as of Q4: 79

Ark Invest’s Equity Stake: $480.92 Million 

Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD), headquartered in Menlo Park, California, is a leading financial services company known for its electronic trading platform and cryptocurrency wallet. In Q4 2024, the company reported revenue exceeding $1 billion, bringing its full-year total to over $3 billion, a remarkable 58% increase from 2023. This surge was driven by the successful launch of new products, including the Robinhood Gold Card, Robinhood Legend, and its expanding derivatives business, all designed to meet the needs of its active trading community. By broadening its product offerings and enhancing user engagement, Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) has positioned itself as a key player in the financial technology sector, demonstrating its ability to scale operations while delivering substantial revenue growth.

One of its standout innovations, Robinhood Legend, has already generated $50 million in annualized trading revenue. The company also achieved a record $50 billion in customer deposits, marking a nearly 50% increase. Additionally, subscriptions to its premium Robinhood Gold service grew by 80%, with approximately 10% of all users opting for the membership. Notably, over 30% of new customers in Q4 2024 chose Gold, highlighting the increasing demand for Robinhood’s premium features. With strong financial momentum, expanding product offerings, and growing investor confidence, Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) remains a compelling investment opportunity poised for continued success.

By the end of Q4 2024, institutional interest in Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) had surged, with 79 hedge funds in Insider Monkey’s database holding positions worth $4.62 billion, a significant increase from the previous quarter’s 36 hedge funds with investments totaling $2.19 billion. This rising confidence from institutional investors underscored the company’s growth potential and set the stage for an impressive financial performance in the following year.

Baron FinTech Fund stated the following regarding Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:

“We also initiated a position in Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) during the quarter. Robinhood is an online brokerage that offers free trading across stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies. Baron Capital has long invested in successful brokerage companies such as Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, and LPL Financial. We first met Robinhood in 2021 during their IPO process. Customers were using Robinhood because of its low-cost offering and simple user interface that makes trading easy and accessible. While we were impressed with management’s success in building a modern brokerage with a large user base and strong product-market fit, we were hesitant to invest at a cyclical peak in trading activity and fintech valuations during the middle of the COVID-era meme-stock craze. Following the IPO, trading activity soon normalized, and the share price fell significantly.

After revisiting the company this past year, we believe Robinhood is a much-improved business today. Departing from its early reputation as a gamified enabler of retail speculation in meme stocks, Robinhood has been professionalized and transformed into a more durable company that can reliably gain market share and grow earnings over the long term. Some examples of the company’s maturation include: 1) providing retirement accounts that should create larger and longer-lasting client relationships; 2) launching the Gold subscription service that delivers additional value to Robinhood’s best customers; 3) introducing the web-based Legend platform that offers more advanced features for active traders; and 4) exercising expense discipline to right-size the cost base and deliver profitability alongside growth. These efforts have delivered strong financial results, with Robinhood generating annualized net new asset growth of 29%, custodied asset growth of 76%, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 42% in the most recent quarter. Average revenue per user has also increased significantly from $60 in 2022 to $107 in the first nine months of 2024 across more than 24 million funded accounts. The customer retention rate is a very strong 95%, up from 80% three years ago…” (Click here to read the full text)

Overall, HOOD ranks 6th on our list of top stocks to buy from Ark Invest's portfolio. While we acknowledge the potential for HOOD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than HOOD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.