Growth investors usually hope to find stocks that can rise tenfold after they purchase shares. Indeed, some of the most prominent names in tech increased much more than that as they came to lead emerging industries. That's one way to become a millionaire.
However, it's crucial to remember that such substantial returns are not guaranteed and rely heavily on market conditions, company performance, and a multitude of other factors.
Moreover, the bull market of 2020 and 2021 took some stocks to stratospheric levels, but the 2022 bear market wiped out nearly all of their gains. Now, with the stock price growth in recent months, stocks like Roku (ROKU +3.12%) and UiPath (PATH 0.99%) could potentially make such gains by 2035. Here's how.
Roku
Roku trades at approximately $70 per share as of this writing. At this point, a tenfold run would take it to $700 per share, well above its all-time high of almost $491 per share in mid-2021. It is also above the expected mid-range price target set by Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, which holds a 5.5% weighting on Roku among Ark funds.
NASDAQ: ROKU
Key Data Points
Wood's team predicted it would reach $605 per share in 2026. Moreover, that is merely the expected price, and the study speculated the price could move as high as $1,493 per share.
Why might Roku surge so high? The main reason is its potential for video advertising. Roku has prospered by bringing content providers, audiences, and advertisers together. It has also benefited as more programming leaves traditional TV in favor of streaming.
Admittedly, Wood's team also outlined a bear case for only $100 per share. And it faces intense competition from heavyweight rivals, including Samsung, Alphabet, and Amazon. This is especially true outside North America, where competitors hold the first-mover advantage. Also, revenue growth has nearly come to a stop, as it grew by only 1% year over year in the first quarter of 2023.
However, amid slow growth, Roku increased the number of active accounts by 17% to more than 72 million during Q1. Also, streaming hours exceeded 25 billion, 20% more than last year.
Finally, despite recent gains, its price-to-sales (P/S) ratio is 3, a relatively modest valuation that could entice new buyers. If Roku can combine that customer growth with an improving ad market, that $700 price target looks more plausible than one might assume.
UiPath
Admittedly, Cathie Wood's team did not make the bold prediction on UiPath that it made on Roku. Nonetheless, it is the second-largest holding across Ark funds, making up 6% of all combined holdings for the Cathie Wood investment.
Wood's team has likely made such an investment since it holds tremendous potential in robotic process automation (RPA). Rather than merely performing repetitive tasks, its RPA offers an end-to-end approach that accomplishes such tasks by leveraging robotics and software into one ecosystem.
UiPath holds an additional competitive advantage thanks to its community. Since the community develops and shares applications within UiPath's ecosystem, a competing product would likely struggle to gain an equal following.
Amid that rising popularity, the company launched its initial public offering in mid-2021. But after peaking at $90 per share, it lost almost 90% of its value. It has since recovered to around $18 per share. This means a recovery to the all-time high would take it halfway to a potential tenfold gain.
NYSE: PATH
Key Data Points
There is a viable path to making such gains. The company predicts a revenue increase of at least 20% for fiscal 2024 (ending January 2024). Also, analysts forecast an average of 32% earnings growth annually over the next five years. That would imply a doubling of the stock price every 2.25 years, assuming constant valuations.
Additionally, the P/S ratio could rise. The sales multiple now stands at 9, but that is near historic lows and well under the 66 P/S ratio it peaked at in April 2021. If earnings growth were to increase this multiple, a tenfold gain would be within reach.
