Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood has made quite the name for herself among growth investors. In fact, her name has become synonymous with a high-risk, high-reward approach to investing. Wood weights holdings in her firm's exchange-traded funds (ETFs) heavily toward innovative companies with the potential to deliver explosive returns. Lately, this approach is paying off big-time.
The share price for Wood's flagship Ark Innovation ETF (ARKK 1.05%) is up roughly 56% over the last year, trouncing the total return of approximately 23% posted by the S&P 500 index across the stretch. With Ark's top fund more than doubling the return from the benchmark index over the last 12 months, growth-oriented investors might want to take a page from Wood's playbook and invest similarly.
Notably, the three largest holdings in the Ark Innovation ETF skyrocketed an average of approximately 193% over the last year. With that in mind, read on for a look at the three stocks that played an outsize role in powering Wood's top fund to big returns.
1. Coinbase Global
Coinbase Global (COIN 5.68%) is a leading provider of cryptocurrency marketplace and wallet services. Its stock stands as the single largest holding in the Ark Innovation ETF and accounts for roughly 10.3% of the fund's total weight. The crypto specialist's share price has surged roughly 363% over the last year, which significantly increased the total weight that it has in Ark's flagship fund.
Wood's big bet on Coinbase is closely connected to her bullish stance on the crypto market at large -- and Bitcoin in particular. Bitcoin's token price has rallied roughly 161% over the last 12 months, and the cryptocurrency now has a market capitalization of roughly $866 billion. Wood believes that the token could hit a price as high as $1.48 million in 2030 -- suggesting growth of more than 3,200% from current levels.
Even if Bitcoin falls short of that level, Ark Invest's base forecast estimates that the total market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies will reach $25 trillion by 2030 -- up more than 1,400%. The investment firm cites increased investor acceptance adoption for cryptocurrencies as being a major driver for pushing the valuations higher.
If the broader crypto market does manage to post very strong gains, it's likely that Coinbase stock will also generate an impressive performance.
2. Tesla
Tesla (TSLA -1.11%) is a pioneer in the electric vehicle (EV) market and continues to post sales momentum and margins that are the envy of the broader automotive industry. Tesla is also making big investments in hopes of establishing other explosive growth drivers over the long term.
The company is aiming to bridge its battery technologies beyond the vehicle space and expand adoption for residential and industrial purposes. Even more important for Wood's bull thesis, the tech innovator is also betting big on self-driving vehicle software.
Tesla already offers some degree of autonomous-driving capabilities with its vehicles, but it continues to invest to improve the software. If the company is successful with its push to become a leading provider of fully autonomous driving technologies, the payoff could be massive.
Wood forecasts that the market for robotaxis could be worth up to $10 trillion in annual global revenue by 2030 -- and her investment firm has singled out Tesla as its highest-conviction bet on self-driving technology and artificial intelligence. The EV stock has risen 110% over the last year and accounts for 7.7% of the Ark Innovation ETF's stock portfolio.
3. Roku
Roku (ROKU -10.29%) is the leading provider of streaming hardware technologies and advertising services. The streaming stock stands as the third-largest holding in the ARK Innovation ETF and accounts for 7.3% of the total portfolio.
In 2022, Ark published a report indicating that it expected Roku to reach a price of $605 per share in 2026 due to increased monetization through advertising and rising watch times on connected televisions in its ecosystem.
Notably, Wood and the Ark team have said they think that Roku stock could climb as high as $1,493 in 2026. With the streaming specialist's share price currently sitting at roughly $91, it would deliver a return of around 1,550% if it were to hit that estimated level. While Wood's performance estimates are admittedly quite lofty, the stock wouldn't need to come close to reaching either of those targets to deliver great returns.
Even after rallying roughly 105% over the last year, Roku stock is still down about 81% from the high that it reached in 2021.
In the third quarter, Roku's total active accounts rose 16% year over year to reach 75.8 million. Meanwhile, total streaming hours across its platform jumped 22% to hit 26.7 billion. Even if the digital advertising market remains pressured in the near term, Roku is building a large and highly engaged user base that should allow it to thrive when conditions improve.
