In this article, we will take a detailed look at the 11 Most Popular Stocks on Robinhood in 2024.
Amid rising inflation and economic uncertainty, millions of young Americans are starting to invest in different asset classes to secure their future and achieve their financial goals. As of the end of 2022, a whopping 58% of US households reported owning stocks, according to the Federal Reserve’s survey of consumer finances. Increasing household wealth and the rise of zero-commission apps like Robinhood is partially responsible for this boom in retail investing.
Has there been any change in retail investing trends ever since the Fed started raising interest rates? Money-market funds, bonds, treasuries and fixed income in general became much more tempting for investors who wanted to avoid volatility that comes with stock investing. In August last year, The Wall Street Journal, citing data from Refinitiv Lipper, said in a report that in matter of just five weeks, investors pulled $11.6 billion from stock funds on a net basis, while money-market funds saw an inflow of $91.1 billion.
Young Americans are Investing in Stocks and Pre-IPO Growth Companies
Analysts also note that young Americans are increasingly getting bored of the same-old names when it comes to stocks and want to invest in companies that will grow big in the future. They want to invest in the Apples, Microsofts and Nvidias of the future. And there are interesting options available for such investors. The Destiny Tech100 (DXYZ) fund, which recently went public, lets you invest in high-growth companies that aren’t publicly traded. Some top names in the fund’s portfolio are OpenAI, SpaceX, commercial space station company Axiom Space, Discord, Klarna, among many others. Other platforms allowing investors to invest in high-growth companies are also seeing a huge influx of young investors. For example, an April 16 Bloomberg report talked about Hiive, a platform that allows you to invest in pre-IPO, VC-backed companies. The report quoted Hiive’s CEO Sim Desai, who said that the number of daily accepted bids has averaged 16 in the past 30 days, up from just three bids a year ago.
Robinhood’s Popularity is Increasing
Robinhood is one of the popular platforms for retail investors, with over 10 million monthly active users. The company is in an expansion mode with new products for crypto investors as well as credit and gold cards. Last month, Bernstein started covering Robinhood stock with an Outperform rating, saying a “monster” crypto cycle over the next two years could boost the stock as more and more retail investors turn to the app to trade cryptocurrencies.
Photo by Mohamed Hadji on Unsplash
Teenagers Using Apps to Invest
Beyond millennial Redditors, there’s another class of retail investors entering the market: teenagers. Investing-related TikTok videos, personal finance blogs, Instagram influencers and an overall rise in financial awareness is causing teenagers in America to invest. In 2022, there were about 200,000 custodial accounts for teens at Schwab, compared to just 120,000 in 2019. That figure jumped to 300,000 in 2023.
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Methodology
For this article we used publicly available data from Robinhood that shows the most popular stocks on the investing app. We also did some manual research to see which stocks are trending on the app these days with positive sentiment. We have also mentioned hedge fund sentiment with these stocks where available. Some top names in the list include Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META). Why do we pay attention to hedge fund sentiment of stocks? Hedge funds’ top 10 consensus stock picks outperformed the S&P 500 Index by more than 140 percentage points over the last 10 years (see the details here).
11. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: N/A
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) is a new arrival in the list of popular stocks on Robinhood. The stock plummeted after Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) revealed plans to sell more shares in the coming months. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp (NASDAQ:DJT) filed to register 146.11 million shares of common stock for holders, 21.49 million shares of common stock issuable upon the exercise of warrants, and 4.06 million warrants to purchase common stock. DJT is rebounding after these dips and the stock is up a whopping 23% over the past five days.
10. GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 12
GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) remains one of the favorites of retail investors who scored huge wins against hedge funds shorting the stock back in the pandemic days. GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) shares have lost about 39% so far this year. Short sellers are targeting the stock again, with GameStop Corp’s (NYSE:GME) short interest coming in at 24% as of April 16. Are retail investors banding together yet again to beat these short sellers? Only time will tell. But for now, the stock is declining after disappointing Q4 results which saw GameStop Corp’s (NYSE:GME) hardware sales tanking.
9. Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors:40
Out of the 933 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 40 hedge funds had stakes in Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) as of the end of the fourth quarter of 2023. The most significant stake in Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) is owned by Ken Fisher’s Fisher Asset Management which had a $721 million stake in Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F).
In addition to Ford, retail investors are also buying Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).
8. Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 82
Ranking eighth in our list of the most popular stocks on Robinhood in 2024 is Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), which has lost about 35% in value year to date. Amid growth challenges and woes in China, Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) has decided to cut 10% of its global workforce.
As of the end of the last quarter of 2023, 82 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey had stakes in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA). The most significant stake in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is owned by Philippe Laffont’s Coatue Management which had a $1 billion stake in Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
Alger Spectra Fund stated the following regarding Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) is an electric vehicle manufacturer with a significant technological lead in its large and rapidly growing addressable market. Tesla is a transportation company that is setting the pace for industry innovation, in our view. During the quarter, the company reported weaker-than-expected fiscal third quarter earnings, where gross margins were negatively impacted by factory downtime and ramping production volumes at new manufacturing plants. However, the company noted that they remain confident by the amount of data that Tesla’s established and growing fleet of vehicles has gathered, which may bode well for the company’s full self-driving capabilities.”
7. Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 89
Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is one of the most popular stocks on Robinhood in 2024. The stock has gained about 24% so far this year. Most of these gains came after Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) won its proxy fight against Nelson Peltz who had launched an activist campaign to get board seats at Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS). Like DIS, hedge funds and retail investors also like Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).
Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) is also one of the most popular stocks among the 933 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. Our data shows that 89 hedge funds had stakes in Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) as of the end of 2023.
Madison Sustainable Equity Fund made the following comment about The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) in its Q3 2023 investor letter:
“During the quarter, we sold our positions in Bristol-Myers Squibb and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). The Walt Disney Company is facing a difficult and uncertain transition in its core media business assets including the ESPN business and other linear media assets. These media assets are cash generative but face secular decline as consumers are cutting their expensive cable subscriptions and moving to alternative streaming options. This has resulted in a decline in operating profits for the media division. The media business has long-term fixed costs related to its sports broadcasting agreement with multiple sports leagues which will further pressure profits during this transition.”
6. Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 131
Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares are struggling this year as the company continues to face growth challenges amid competition. In a latest blow, data shows that Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) has lost its market leader status in the smartphone industry to Samsung. Data from IDC shows that iPhone shipments fell 9.6% in the first quarter of 2024. Samsung’s market share jumped to 20.8% as of the end of the first quarter, while Apple Inc’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) declined to 17.3%. IDC said rising competition in China from companies like Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, among others, is part of the reason why Apple Inc’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) share dipped.
Orbis Global Equity Strategy stated the following regarding Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Never before has following the crowd made so much money. Nor, in our estimation, so little sense. But just look at the opportunities the crowd has left for those of us willing to take a different view. We could wax lyrical about the glaring difference in value between Korean banks priced at 4 times earnings, versus Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) at 28 times, despite diverging fundamentals—Apple is increasingly at risk of bans in China, while Korean banks could double their dividends.”
5. Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 166
Alphabet Inc Class C (NASDAQ:GOOG) shares have gained about 12% this year. Despite concerns that the rise of chatbots could dent Alphabet Inc Class C’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) search business, data so far shows Google search market share remains steady. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian recently gave an Outperform rating and a $160 price target to the stock.
The analyst said Alphabet Inc Class C’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) “long-standing core AI/ML capabilities will provide competitive advantages into the Gen-AI era.”
Palm Valley Capital Fund stated the following regarding Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Governments have various irons in the fire for curbing (commandeering?) the power of tech titans, with the European Union rolling out the Digital Markets Act, the Federal Trade Commission suing Amazon for illegally using monopoly power, and the DOJ lawsuit against Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s advertising business going to trial in September.
Furthermore, the dominant technology enterprises are not immune from shooting themselves in the foot. Google’s botched launch of its AI model, Gemini, shows the risk of having too much money. You lose discipline. A Pirate Wires exposé into the firm’s culture revealed that employees went to extreme lengths to intentionally degrade the quality of the AI engine’s output for ideological reasons. Try that as a small business! See how far you make it…” (Click here to read the full text)
4. Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 173
Retail investors and hedge funds are piling into Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) to ride the AI wave. While the stock has pulled back recently, analysts believe it has more room to grow as companies continue to purchase Nvidia Corp’s (NASDAQ:NVDA) AI-focused chips to power their AI software. Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) is expected to launch new chips in the industry to meet demand.
Of the 933 funds tracked by Insider Monkey, 173 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey reported owning stakes in Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA).
ClearBridge Small Cap Growth Strategy stated the following regarding NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“While large cap benchmarks get a lot of attention for a handful of mega cap stocks driving the lion’s share of performance, we would highlight even more extreme and unprecedented concentration in small cap benchmarks. Year to date, one stock, Super Micro Computer has driven 37% of the return of the benchmark, closely followed by MicroStrategy, a unique stock that is largely considered a bitcoin proxy. Together, they accounted for over half of the benchmark’s first quarter return. This compares to NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), which accounted for 24% of the return of the S&P 500 Index. The 32 top-performing stocks in the Russell 2000 Growth Index accounted for 100% of its return, versus 81 names driving the S&P 500’s performance this quarter.”
3. Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 242
Citi recently increased its price target for Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META) to $590 from $525. Citi likes ads innovation, longer reels, a new AI video architecture, and increase in advertisers demand on Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META).
Palm Valley Capital Fund stated the following regarding Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“While we are not experts on the beanstalk tech stocks, we do have considerable experience observing behavior during bubbles. For the current crop of market leaders, we wonder: how good can it get? Google, Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META), and Amazon’s combined advertising revenue exceeded the total value of the U.S. advertising industry by 2020 and now accounts for nearly 50% of the entire $900 billion global ad market (GroupM estimate). Meta’s top advertiser last year was Temu, a retailer of cheap Chinese goods that is losing money on each U.S. order in an effort to take share from Amazon.
Meanwhile, Microsoft’s powerhouse Office division carried a 49% operating margin last year, Meta’s Facebook and Instagram segment had a 47% margin, and Google’s Search earned a 35% operating margin. In other words, purveyors of financial indexes that are primarily constructed by simple, easy-to-replicate formulas sport profit margins that make those of the most dominant technology franchises on Earth seem prosaic. …” (Click here to read the full text)
2. Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 293
Huge spending on AI-related software is a major growth catalyst for Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), since Amazon.com Inc’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) AWS platform enables developers to make and deploy AI apps. Wedbush Securities recently named Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) as one of the beneficiaries of the increased ad spending in 2024 as the firm’s survey shows that marketers and advertisers are signfincalty increasing their ad spend budgets this year.
Alphyn Capital Management stated the following regarding Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“My previous analysis (Q4 2022 letter) highlighted the significant growth in Amazon.com, Inc.’s (NASDAQ:AMZN) fulfillment expenses since 2015, masking the true earnings potential of its retail business. Though initially costly, the recent restructuring into regional fulfillment centers has yielded lower fulfillment costs and faster shipping times, leading to increased purchase frequency, especially among Prime members.
Following the regionalization effort, over the last couple of years, Amazon prioritized cost control and reduced capital expenditures. At a high level, the North American segment’s operating income swung from a $240 million loss in 2022 to a healthy $6.4 billion profit (6% margin) in 2023. Combined with continued strength in AWS and advertising, Amazon’s free cash flow (as reported, excluding equipment finance leases and principal repayments) surged from negative $13 billion to positive $36 billion.
Amazon stands out for pioneering the public market strategy of prioritizing long-term growth through sustained low margins and reinvestment, with the ability to later “turn on the taps” for profit. While many public tech companies have tried to replicate this approach, Amazon’s scale and execution capabilities make it one of the few that have successfully pulled it off.”
1. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 302
Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) is gaining attention of retail investors on Robinhood, and the stock is also the most popular one among the elite hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey. AI remains the biggest growth catalyst for Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) shares. Recently, UBS published a list of its highest-conviction AI stocks. Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) was one of them. UBS said these stocks are positioned to capture the AI-related opportunities over the next six to 24 months.
Diamond Hill Long-Short Fund stated the following regarding Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) in its fourth quarter 2023 investor letter:
“Other top Q4 contributors included Meta and Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Social media platform Meta’s digital ad revenues increased during the quarter, while it continued cutting costs — a combination which generated better-than-expected revenues and profits. Shares of software and information technology services provider Microsoft rose as its Azure cloud business continues growing and the company continues capitalizing on its attractive recurring revenue-based model to drive growth.”
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Disclosure. None. 11 Most Popular Stocks on Robinhood in 2024 was initially published on Insider Monkey.
