Robinhood Markets (HOOD -1.10%) has made buying stocks easy and accessible for millions of new investors. Users of the company's commission-free trading platform have earned a reputation for engaging in short-term trading, risky options plays, and volatile meme stock candidates including AMC Entertainment Holdings and GameStop, but they are also heavily invested in some more traditional, blue-chip names.
Retail investors have emerged as a powerful force in today's stock market, and some companies favored by Robinhood investors will likely go on to deliver fantastic performance. With that in mind, read on for a look at two popular stocks on the platform that could make you richer in August and beyond.
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1. Amazon
Shares of Amazon (AMZN -1.65%) have lost some ground after the company's second-quarter results arrived with revenue that fell short of the market's expectations and guidance for weaker-than-expected growth. While the company's sales performance and near-term guidance fell short of analyst estimates, long-term investors shouldn't be too concerned with these relatively small misses.
The company's profit in the second quarter came in well ahead of the market's expectations, and the recent pullback in the stock presents an opportunity to build a position in one of the world's best-run and most-influential companies.
Amazon ranked as the ninth most-held stock among Robinhood investors at the beginning of August, and it's not hard to see why. The tech giant has built incredible category-leading businesses across multiple industries, and it's also able to leverage strengths between sectors to create synergies that make the overall company stronger.
For example, Amazon's market-leading e-commerce business has helped it expand into the subscription-services market, and its subscription services also help keep users engaged in its online retail ecosystem. The company's dominant position in e-commerce also means that its platform is one of the most valuable online advertising hubs, and the company is rapidly building a powerful digital advertising business that should help power growth through the next decade and beyond.
The company's Echo hardware and Alexa voice-based operating system also feed into the company's online retail and digital advertising operations. Amazon Web Services stands as a market leader in the cloud infrastructure space, and it provides a variety of computing and data analytics tools to other company projects in addition to serving up strong margins and sales growth in its own right.
Amazon has been an innovative and forward-thinking company, and it's likely that it will continue to successfully expand into new categories that also strengthen its existing businesses. Few companies look better positioned for long-term success.
2. Palantir Technologies
More so than ever before, gathering and analyzing data is central to success for public and private institutions. Palantir Technologies (PLTR 0.56%) specializes in big data analytics and is emerging as an early favorite for large public and private organizations. And its stock stands out as a top candidate for risk-tolerant investors looking to benefit from new evolutions in the Information Age.
The next decade will see an explosion of new connected devices and communications services. The Internet of Things will bring a wide range of new tech hardware online, and sensor technology will expand the range of objects that generate data. Virtual machines communicating with one another online will further power the ongoing data boom, and this surge of new information will create a flood of valuable new information to sort through and analyze.
Palantir's Foundry software platform helps manage data and predict outcomes with data analytics and artificial intelligence. Thus far, the company has demonstrated an impressive ability to deliver solutions that are ahead of the curve, and it's continued to provide users with consistent updates and upgrades that have boosted the value of its software. These initiatives are helping the company bring new customers on board and get existing customers to increase their spending through the platform.
Palantir is already finding success with its land-and-expand business model, but it's important to keep in mind just how much room for expansion is still there. While data analytics has already played a big role in shaping the direction of the 21st century, this is still a young science and industry, and it will likely only become increasingly influential. Whether its governance on the national, state, or local level or mapping out crucial next moves for a small or large business, data analytics will play a big role in separating the winners from the losers in both the public and private sectors.
The company ranks as the 23rd most-held stock among Robinhood users, but it stands out for other reasons too. Palantir is a disruptive first mover operating in an industry that has a huge runway for growth over the long term. I think that investors who take a buy-and-hold approach could go on to see very strong returns from the stock.
