There was a time when most investors wouldn't have cared much about the stocks Robinhood Markets' (HOOD 4.44%) customers were buying. The crowd using that trading app was typically new and inexperienced, and not necessarily a lead you'd be interested in following.
Much has changed since Robinhood officially launched its app in 2015, though. Chief among those changes? The brokerage firm's clients have matured in terms of the risks they're willing -- or unwilling -- to take. There are a lot of blue-chippy names among their top picks. Here's a rundown of three of the most popular stocks among Robinhood's users that just might be smart additions to your portfolio as well.
Snap
With just a superficial glance, it would be easy to conclude the social media industry's best days are behind it. Meta Platforms' Facebook just suffered its first-ever quarterly decline in the average number of daily users visiting the site, but after several quarters of slowing growth, last quarter's decline may not be the last. Meanwhile, market research outfit eMarketer estimates Twitter will lose (net) 1.1 million U.S. users between 2021 and 2025.
It's not quite accurate to say the entirety of social networking is dying a slow death, though. It's just changing. Consumers may be weary of the bickering and misinformation Facebook so frequently serves up, and with Twitter dishing out a similar degree of unpleasantness. People, however, are still warming up to more casual social media venues.
Enter Snap (SNAP 27.63%), parent to Snapchat. Although it's categorized as a social networking service, it barely fits the description. The app is largely limited to sharing "moments" captured as digital images or videos with a user's selected friends. Snap monetizes the app just by injecting the occasional advertisement into users' feeds. Advertisers can also manage their own Snapchat profiles. Notably, there's not a lot of room within the app to force unwanted or unhealthy conversations onto users.
Image source: Getty Images.
Snap's past and projected results prove this premise is plenty marketable. Last year's top line was up 64% compared to 2020's revenue, and this year's is expected to grow another 37% before reaccelerating to 42% next year. That's impressive.
Better still, you can step into this stock while it's trading at less than half of October's price.
Nvidia
You probably know Nvidia (NVDA 6.18%) as a video-gaming hardware name. It's the most prolific brand of graphics cards needed to handle graphics-intense games. Gaming, in fact, is still the company's biggest business despite the company's foray into areas like autonomous cars and professional visualization tools used by animators and engineers.
Nvidia's revenue mix is quickly changing, although in a way that's yet to be fully appreciated. Namely, data centers -- and data centers doing artificial intelligence work in particular -- are a fast-growing business. Nvidia's data center revenue was up 71% year over year during the final fiscal quarter of last year, extending a long streak of above-average growth and pushing this unit to within reach of surpassing the company's hardware sales made to video gamers.
However, only the surface of this opportunity has been scratched. Global Market Insights estimates the data center infrastructure market will grow at an average annualized clip of 12% through 2025, led by demand for artificial intelligence solutions. Vantage Market Research says the artificial intelligence market itself will grow by 40% per year through 2028.
These are only guesses, mind you. Even if these outlooks are calling for twice as much growth as is actually in the cards, though, Nvidia's 32% slide from November's peak still makes it a compelling buy against the broad backdrop.
Ford
Finally, add Ford Motor (F -1.92%) -- yes, the iconic-but-ancient carmaker -- to your list of Robinhood customer favorites you may want to consider owning as well.
There's no denying Ford initially missed its opportunity to lead the world's entry into the era of electric vehicles; Tesla was more than happy to assume the ceded role. You could also argue that Ford waited too long to began addressing the EV opportunity. A bunch of investors lost interest during that delay, and Ford shares suffered as a result.
If you've not checked out Ford stock within the past couple of years, though, it might be worth a look. Shares are still up more than four times their low from early 2020 despite the 30% pullback from January's high, largely lifted by its move into the electric vehicle industry. Its new Mustang Mach-E has displaced Tesla's Model 3 as Consumer Reports' favorite EV for 2022, and its all-electric "Lightning" F-150 pickup is a big hit as well.
This early success bodes well for the $50 billion investment Ford is making in the still-nascent EV business. The company aims to be able to produce 600,000 electric vehicles per year by 2023, en route to half of its 2030 output being EVs. Since the U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates the worldwide number of electric vehicles in use will swell from around 10 million now to more than 670 million by 2050, it's not difficult to understand why investors are falling back in love with this 118-year-old car company.
