The Top 50 Robinhood Stocks in July

Though volatility has tapered off in recent weeks, investors have received something of a crash course in being patient over the past 17 months. Despite the broad-based S&P 500 shedding 34% of its value in about a month during the first quarter of 2020, we've watched the benchmark index catapult more than 90% off of its lows.

For some investors, volatility is something they fear. But for predominantly young and novice retail investors, volatility is the impetus that's driven them to put their money to work in the stock market.

Image source: Getty Images.

As volatility has whipsawed the market, these younger retail investors have found their home with online investing app Robinhood. We know this because Robinhood added approximately 3 million new users in 2020.

There are a number of lures for retail investors with Robinhood. For example, Robinhood doesn't charge a commission when stocks that are listed on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq exchange are bought or sold. Robinhood is also one of many brokerages that allows for fractional share investing. And, who can forget that Robinhood also gifts free shares of stock to new users.

In one respect, it's a fantastic thing to see young people putting their money to work. Time is the biggest ally investors have. The earlier they start putting their money to work, the better chance they have of compounding their nest egg.

On the other hand, Robinhood's retail investors have been buying some really awful stocks. Instead of thinking for the long-term, their buying activity demonstrates a willingness to chase momentum plays, penny stocks, and money-losing businesses.

If you don't believe me, here's a closer look at the 50 most-held Robinhood stocks as we enter July.

Data source: Robinhood, as of June 26, 2021. Table by author. 

Continuing to chase meme stocks

Like bees to honey, retail investors have been inseparable from meme stocks for almost six months. A meme stock is a company valued more for its social media favorability/hype than its operating performance.

Since mid-January, retail investors have been banding together to buy shares and out-of-the-money call options on stocks with high levels of short interest. In many instances, companies with high levels of short interest have poor-performing businesses. This is how we've witnessed GameStop and AMC Entertainment become extremely popular on Robinhood.

The good news for GameStop is that it's been able to use its monumental run to sell shares of common stock and raise capital. It's completely erased its debt and given itself more than enough cash to oversee its ongoing transformation into a digital gaming company. To be clear, this doesn't negate the fact that GameStop's previous management team completely dropped the ball on the shift to digital gaming. What it does do is give the company enough capital to at least attempt a transformation.

The same can't be said for AMC, which sold the vast majority of its shares six months ago to avoid bankruptcy. Even with a handful of recent capital raises, AMC has well over $3 billion in net debt, and its 2027 bond prices indicate the company is still a bankruptcy risk.

To make matters worse, movie theater ticket sales have been in a 19-year decline. Even with a larger share of the movie theater industry, AMC's pie is shrinking. It's pretty clear that social media hype, ignorance of fundamental data, and misinformation are the key drivers behind AMC's irrational rally.

Image source: Getty Images.

Canadian cannabis binge

Robinhood's retail investors also have quite the crush on Canadian marijuana stocks. Five of the 33 most-held companies on Robinhood's leaderboard hail from our neighbor to the north.

Even though cannabis-focused research company BDSA has forecasted weed sales growth in Canada from $2.6 billion in 2020 to $6.4 billion by 2026, the Canadian pot industry has been a disaster. Regulators have caused all sorts of supply chain issues, consumers have flocked to lower-margin value brands, and Canadian marijuana stocks overzealously expanded and, in some instances, decimated their balance sheets in the process.

Robinhood investors' fascination with Sundial Growers is nothing short of frustrating. It may well be the single most-avoidable marijuana stock. Although its management team was able to pay off the company's existing debt by issuing stock and conducting debt-for-equity swaps, these share offerings simply haven't stopped. In a little over a seven-month stretch, more than 1.35 billion shares were issued. Sundial is showing zero regard for its shareholders, and its management team hasn't even laid out a concrete plan for how it'll spend its cash.

We've seen similar issues from Aurora Cannabis, the second most-popular Canadian weed stock. Once the most-held stock on Robinhood, Aurora has drowned its shareholders in dilution. Even after selling one of its greenhouses and shuttering a number of other cultivation facilities, its cost-cutting has put it nowhere near close to generating a profit. As long as Aurora keeps burning through cash, its management team will continue to issue stock.

Image source: American Airlines.

An obsession with travel companies

Another absolute head-scratcher is Robinhood investors' obsession with travel companies -- specifically airlines and cruise ship operators.

On one hand, the case could be made that the coronavirus pandemic overly punished the travel industry. Though we remain firmly in a global pandemic, increased domestic vaccination rates offer hope that the U.S. could soon put the pandemic in the rearview mirror. For instance, the Transportation Security Administration screened over 2 million passengers in a single day in mid-June for the first time since before the pandemic was declared. 

On the other hand, the travel industry tends to be built on mediocre margins, at best, and it typically requires the economy to be running on all cylinders. Despite recovering from a recession, most airline stocks are now lugging around billions in extra debt that they didn't have two years ago. American Airlines, which I've previously anointed as the worst airline stock, has $34 billion in net debt and $48 billion in aggregate debt. The interest American Airlines is going to have to pay to service this debt could cripple its growth initiatives for the next decade.

Meanwhile, companies like Norwegian Cruise Line came perilously close to bankruptcy during the pandemic. Unlike airlines, which are essential for business travel, cruise ships aren't essential. They'll remain at the mercy of the pandemic until it's firmly in the rearview mirror. That means Norwegian may continue losing money well into 2022, if not beyond.

A Tesla Model S plugged in for charging. Image source: Tesla.

Alternative energy for autos in focus

Lastly, Robinhood investors appear to be going all-in on anything that has to do with alternative/clean energy for vehicles.

Electric vehicle (EV) kingpin Tesla has surpassed Apple to become the most-held stock on the platform, while Ford, General Motors, Workhorse Group, NIO, and Churchill Capital are other EV producers that found their way into the top 50 leaderboard (GM and Ford predominantly produce combustion-engine vehicles at the moment). If we also include Plug Power, FuelCell Energy, and Ideanomics, that's nine of the top 48 Robinhood stocks that are devoted to alternative energy adoption for autos.

There's pretty much no question at this point that EVs and potentially hydrogen fuel cells represent the future of the automotive industry. There's a multi-decade opportunity for consumers and enterprise fleets to switch over to alternative solutions, as well as for ancillary players to build the infrastructure necessary to support EVs and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles.

The issue is that investors have a tendency to overestimate how quickly new technology is adopted, and that's likely what we're witnessing with EVs. The fact that Tesla is worth $647 billion is ludicrous considering that it hasn't demonstrated it can generate a profit from selling its EVs. The only way Tesla has been able to generate a profit is by selling renewable energy credits or taking a one-time benefit from the sale of Bitcoin.

The EV space is growing increasingly more crowded, and the major auto stocks are investing tens of billions into new models. It's unlikely that Tesla will be able to hold onto its competitive edge for much longer.