There's never a quiet day at the office for Cathie Wood. The founder and CEO of Ark Invest is always making moves across her family of aggressive growth exchange-traded funds (ETFs). She kicked off the new trading week with a flurry of activity.
She added to a half dozen of her existing holdings on Monday. Three names in particular that caught my eye among her buys were MercadoLibre (MELI +0.34%), Alibaba (BABA 1.52%), and DoorDash (DASH 0.72%). Let's see if you should follow Wood into these globetrotting growth stocks.
NASDAQ: MELI
Key Data Points
1. MercadoLibre
There's a world of opportunity in Latin America, earlier in the online migration cycle than the U.S. and most territories. MercadoLibre is leading the way on this long runway, making the most of its pole position in the e-commerce and fintech markets.
MercadoLibre started out as an online marketplace, and it's still the top dog in Latin America in every main market. It served 94 million unique buyers over the past year. They're a loyal lot with the sticky platform, buying an average of 7.4 items per quarter. Despite the logistical challenges, almost three-quarters of all orders are delivered within two days.
As good as the e-commerce story is -- with better than 25% sales growth in its three largest markets of Brazil, Mexico, and Agentina -- the fintech side is potentially even better. Total payment volume through Mercado Pago clocked in at $64.6 billion in MercadoLibre's latest quarter. The 39% year-over-year increase in payments processed is stronger than its still respectable e-commerce business, and the volume is now more than 4 times greater than the gross merchandise value of its online retailing roots.
It's true that MercadoLibre proved mortal on the bottom line, but there's a good reason for the rare bottom-line miss. In a strategic effort to keep gaining market share while fending off competitors, MercadoLibre lowered its minimum order size in Brazil to qualify for free shipping by 75%. If this reminds you of Jeff Bezos' famous quote about a competitor's margin being his opportunity, you're on the right track.
NYSE: BABA
Key Data Points
2. Alibaba
MercadoLibre isn't the only international e-commerce play on Wood's Monday shopping list. She has been loading up on Chinese growth stocks in recent weeks, and this week that means buying more Alibaba. It's been on a tear this year, more than doubling in 2025.
The U.S. trade war with China hasn't slowed Alibaba's dominance on its home turf, and its AliExpress arm, which sells internationally, has nearly the rest of the world to serve the way it has in the past. Alibaba is also setting itself up as an artificial intelligence (AI) play, as China is backing homegrown companies to fill the void with export restrictions in place with U.S. AI chipmakers.
It's not just Wood and investors bidding up Alibaba. Last week it revealed that it spent $241 million in share buybacks during the third quarter. It has now repurchased shares on a quarterly basis for more than two years. You can't blame Alibaba. Despite the shares more than doubling, Alibaba is trading for less than 22 times trailing earnings.
NASDAQ: DASH
Key Data Points
3. DoorDash
Shifting away from a couple of international stocks catching Wood's eye, California's DoorDash was also in her grocery cart on Monday. The country's leading third-party app for restaurant delivery is on a tear, soaring 95% over the past year.
Revenue seemed to be decelerating at DoorDash for the fifth straight year after the first quarter, but it's tapping the accelerator instead of the brake pedal now. The 25% top-line increase it posted for the second quarter is faster than its growth from a year earlier. DoorDash already took out one red flag when it turned profitable last year. Now it's time to see if it can keep picking up the pace as consumers value convenience over the money they can save through in-person shopping.
