After an astounding 2020, the chief investment officer of ARK Invest and stock picker extraordinaire Cathie Wood has had a rough 2021. The ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK 2.96%) is down 38% off its all-time high and down 22% year to date.
ARK and Wood invest in lots of high-growth tech stocks that have been battered this year, which is what's causing the fund's poor performance. Coinbase Global (COIN 4.67%), Shopify (SHOP 4.90%), and UiPath (PATH 3.44%) are some of Cathie Wood's favorites, and all are between 20% and 50% off their all-time highs. However, the fact that millions of dollars of their stock are sitting in Wood's ETFs should be indicative of their long-term potential. These companies are trading at bargain prices today, so you might want to consider putting them on your watchlist.
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Coinbase: A way to invest in crypto
Coinbase is ARK Invest's third-largest holding, clocking in at a market value of $1.25 billion. Shares of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange have sunk like a stone recently, falling 32% off its all-time highs. However, this isn't fully indicative of business performance.
With over $255 billion in assets across 100 different countries and 72 million users, Coinbase has become a cornerstone of the crypto economy as one of the leading, most trusted cryptocurrency exchanges. The company takes a cut of every purchase of crypto on the platform, so the rise in popularity of cryptocurrency has resulted in impressive revenue success. The company's revenue increased by over 330% year over year in Q3. With this, the company has also achieved impressive profitability: Coinbase brought almost one-third of its revenue to the bottom line.
While its reliance on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC -0.64%) has led to amazing growth recently, it's really a double-edged sword. The company makes money only on purchases of crypto, so in large-scale crypto sell-offs, the company is left stranded. This leaves Coinbase largely vulnerable to the winds of the crypto markets.
With the recent sell-off of crypto and Bitcoin, Coinbase has followed suit -- falling to a valuation of just 22 times earnings. Whether this is justified or not, Coinbase will likely mimic the crypto market, and its success largely depends on the widespread adoption of crypto. Therefore, if you think that cryptocurrencies will skyrocket over the next decade, Coinbase could be a smart investment.
UiPath: An AI pureplay
While not as large as Coinbase, ARK ETFs hold over $1 billion of UiPath stock -- making it the sixth-largest holding across all of Wood's funds. UiPath is disrupting the way companies operate and handle tedious, repetitive tasks by normalizing the use of artificial intelligence and bots. The company has the vision to deliver a fully automated enterprise so that workers can optimize their efficiency, and the way the company is doing this has attracted companies like AutoDesk (ADSK 0.36%) and NASA.
While UiPath's product sounds like a pie-in-the-sky dream, the company is more than real. It has over 9,600 customers and $818 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR). With such dominance, UiPath has been named a market leader in the robotic process automation (RPA) market in Gartner's Magic Quadrant. As the leader, it has gained the trust and confidence of companies that might be wary of bringing automation and robots into the workplace.
UiPath has lots of potential to grow. The company sees a $30 billion addressable opportunity by 2024, which would be immense growth from its current $818 million in ARR. UiPath might get some pushback along the way from those wary of integrating robots into the workplace, but its robots can provide efficiency improvements. The company has saved its customers millions of hours and dollars without putting workers' jobs on the line. UiPath is meant to work alongside human employees, and it has been successful in doing so.
Shares have fallen drastically since it came public earlier this year, and that has provided a valuation that an appealing valuation public at 60 times sales, but it now trades at 22 times sales. Cathie Wood has taken the opportunity to buy more shares this December, and you might want to consider doing the same.
Shopify: The rising e-commerce pick
Shopify is farther down at the 11th-largest ARK position, but still represents $950 million worth of shares -- and for good reason. The company has doubled its gross merchandise volume (GMV) over the past 16 months, reaching $400 billion in cumulative GMV on its merchants' platforms in Q3. This has been because of the company's relentless focus on its customers' growth and success. This is unrivaled by competitors like Amazon (AMZN 1.29%), which have often stifled SMBs by noticing their success and then offering and promoting a self-developed product that competes with them directly.
The company recently announced a new feature that would make international sales easier for merchants. Shopify Markets would allow companies to streamline global expansion -- something many Shopify users might never have thought possible. The company also has plans to roll out additional features over the next few years, with one of my personal favorites being Shopify Fulfillment. With this, users could access the fulfillment network that Shopify is building out and let the company pack and ship orders for them.
This focus on customer success is truly unique, which is why the company demands a very high premium. The company trades at roughly 40 times sales, which is the highest valuation out of these three stocks. However, I also believe that Shopify is the highest-quality stock on this list. While all three of these stocks are appealing, Shopify has proven itself the most, and the company's expansion efforts beyond SMB look very promising. While there is more risk that share prices could continue dropping, I think it is worth paying up for high-quality companies, and Shopify fits that bill. Given the number of shares that Cathie Wood owns, I think she is in agreement.
