Cathie Wood didn’t drive through January asleep at the wheel. The founder and CEO of Ark Invest was active on the final trade day of of the month. She added to eight of her existing portfolios, paring back on just three other investments.
Three of the more interesting stocks that Wood was buying on Friday include Amazon(NASDAQ: AMZN), Robinhood Markets(NASDAQ: HOOD), and Coinbase(NASDAQ: COIN). All three stocks moved lower on Friday. Let’s take a closer look at these three fresh purchases.
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The second largest company reporting earnings this week is Amazon. The country’s largest online retailer will check in with its fourth-quarter results on Thursday afternoon. Amazon’s guidance for the seasonally potent quarter is respectable in the current climate.
Amazon sees net sales of $206 billion to $213 billion for the final three months of 2025, rising 10% to 13% from where it landed a year earlier. There’s understandably a broader range for its outlook when it comes to operating profit. Amazon is targeting $21 billion to $26 billion, as low as a decline of 1% to as high as a 23% year-over-year pop. The retail and online services provider doesn’t issue bottom-line guidance, but analysts expect earnings per share to climb 5% to $1.95.
Amazon has been hovering in the pre-teens for its top-line growth rate over the past few years. The 9%, 12%, and 11% increases in net sales that it has posted in the three years from 2022 are the three weakest years in its three decades of operation. After back-to-back quarters of 13% gains, landing at the high end of its fourth-quarter guidance would bring full-year results to almost 13%.
Investors aren’t overly concerned about slower net sales growth, as Amazon Web Services (AWS) is saving the day on the bottom line. AWS is Amazon’s cloud-hosting business. It’s growing a lot faster than its flagship e-tail business, and it’s a high-margin juggernaut. It made up only 22% of the net sales mix in Amazon’s third quarter, but it accounted for two-thirds of its net operating income.
Amazon stock is trading flattish, up a market-lagging 2% over the past year. A strong report can change that, but a lot likely happened between when Amazon offered up its guidance and when the period itself closed two months later. Wood’s addition to her position in Amazon just four days before a telltale quarterly update should mean she’s confident that Amazon will come through with a strong performance later this week.
Cryptocurrencies are taking a hit, and that could leave a dent on the next two stocks in this list. Robinhood Markets began as a platform for commission-free stock trading, but options and crypto now account for 78% of its transaction-based revenue.
Bitcoin(CRYPTO: BTC) has plummeted 40% since its October peak. Potentially making the decision of buying into Robinhood and Coinbase on Friday even worse, as of Sunday night, Bitcoin has fallen 10% from where it was when the stock market closed for the week.
Robinhood is trying to diversify its offerings as it hopes to keep its 26.89 million funded accounts around even through this crypto winter. It’s made partnerships to dive into futures and predictive markets. Just last week, Robinhood announced on X that it’s moving into tax filings and estate planning with certified financial planners. Bloomberg also reported last week that Robinhood could be a finalist chosen as one of up to three initial trustees for the Trump accounts launching for children this year.
Coinbase naturally is more crypto-dependent than Robinhood. The top online trading platform for digital currencies is built for crypto, and Coinbase stock has been cut in half since its October high when Bitcoin peaked, performing worse than the world’s most popular crypto denomination.
Coinbase reports next Thursday after the market closes, exactly a week after Amazon offers its fresh financials. Investors are already bracing for the new reality of a cooling market for cryptocurrencies. Analysts are forecasting a sharp 78% plunge in earnings per share on an 18% slide in revenue for the fourth quarter, which it will discuss next week. Coinbase doesn’t have as many growth levers as Robinhood does to pivot from crypto when it’s weak, but that also means it’s better positioned when there is a sustainable, substantial recovery in Bitcoin and smaller digital currencies.
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Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Bitcoin. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
