Are you wondering which stocks are best positioned to take advantage of the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) revolution?
Perhaps we could learn a thing or two from America's most famous innovation-focused investor and CEO of ARK Invest, Cathie Wood. Earlier this year, ARK Invest said AI software could generate up to $14 trillion in revenue in 2030 by capturing just 10% of the expected productivity gains it's expected to produce.
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Over the past week, the exchange-traded funds (ETFs) she manages for ARK Invest have been snapping up some AI stocks and trimming others. Recently, ARK Invest's ETFs made multiple purchases of the following two AI stocks. Let's give them a closer look to learn why Wood has bought them hand over fist lately.
CrowdStrike Holdings
On June 1, The ARK Next Generation Internet ETF and the ARK Fintech Innovation ETF bought shares of CrowdStrike Holdings (CRWD 0.14%). While this is, first and foremost, a cybersecurity company, it's long-employed AI to detect threats to its clients.
The value of AI applications generally rises with the amount of data you can feed them. Few cybersecurity providers can feed their AI models the brontosaurus-sized portions CrowdStrike has access to. Its platform analyzes trillions of signals each week.
Wood's Crowdstrike purchases on June 1 were a little surprising because the stock sank more than 11% in after-hours trading on May 31. Investors were responding to forward-looking guidance in its latest earnings report that suggests growth is decelerating. Despite the recent drop, it's still up about 46% this year.
During its fiscal first quarter that ended April 30, CrowdStrike reported revenue that rose 42% year over year to an annualized $2.77 billion. CrowdStrike raised its revenue outlook slightly for the full fiscal year of 2024 from the range it provided in March. Management now expects total revenue to land between $3.0005 billion and $3.0367 billion.
The midpoint of CrowdStrike's new guided range for fiscal 2024 revenue represents a 35% year-over-year gain. This is less than investors are used to but probably still fast enough to justify the stock's sky-high valuation at the moment. The shares are trading at around 66 times the midpoint of management's earnings projection for fiscal 2024.
Following Wood's lead probably isn't a bad idea, given CrowdStrike's projected growth rate and its leadership position in the exploding market for cybersecurity solutions. That said, investors need to realize that further signs of a slowdown in its next several quarterly reports could cause this richly valued stock to fall hard.
UiPath
Wood can't seem to get enough of UiPath (PATH -0.42%) lately. On May 25 and 26, six of Ark Invest's funds acquired shares of the robotic process automation (RPA) software provider.
Since its inception in 2005, the UiPath platform has employed AI to become a leader in the RPA industry, and it isn't about to stop now. The latest release includes an OpenAI connector that allows developers to access the GPT-3 model that made ChatGPT famous.
Wood isn't the only investor enthusiastic about AI and buying heaps of UiPath shares lately. The stock is up 47% this year.
Most of UiPath's customers use its platform to automate away repetitive tasks so they can send employees packing. Some even use it to free up time for valuable employees to do more thoughtful work. Either way, demand has remained strong during a relatively soft period for software-based services. UiPath reported a 122% dollar-based net-retention rate during its fiscal first quarter that ended April 30.
UiPath stock has been trading at around 63 times management's expectation for adjusted earnings this year. This is a high multiple, but the company still has a pretty good chance to overcome its valuation and provide market-beating gains from present levels. From now through 2030, the RPA market is expected to grow by 39.9% annually, according to Grand View Research. Adding some shares of this stock to a diversified portfolio looks like a smart move to make right now.
