We recently published a list of Mark Cuban Stock Portfolio: Top 10 Stock Picks. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) stands against other top stock picks from Mark Cuban’s portfolio.
Mark Cuban is a well-known entrepreneur and television personality, recognized for his diverse business ventures and outspoken presence in the sports and entertainment industries. He was the principal owner of an NBA franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, of which he now serves as a minority owner. Raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Cuban showed an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. At age 12, he sold garbage bags to afford a pair of expensive sneakers after which, at 16, he capitalized on a newspaper strike by transporting newspapers. Later, he enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh before transferring to Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, where he earned a degree in management in 1981.
Cuban started his career at Mellon Bank, where he developed an interest in technology and networking. After being fired from his sales job in a software retailer, he founded MicroSolutions, a company specializing in system integration and software reselling. Under his leadership, the company flourished, generating over $30 million in revenue before Cuban sold it to CompuServe for $6 million in 1990, netting approximately $2 million after taxes. Cuban’s success continued with Audionet, a company he co-founded in 1995 alongside Todd Wagner. Audionet evolved into Broadcast.com, growing rapidly and generating millions in revenue. In 1999, at the height of the dot-com boom, Yahoo! acquired Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in stock.
Over the years, Mark Cuban has invested in various industries, including social software, networking, entertainment, sports, and cryptocurrency. He was an early investor in IceRocket, a blog search engine, and backed companies like RedSwoosh, Weblogs, Inc., and Goowy Media. In 2005, he experimented with a new business model for online journalism through Sharesleuth.com and later launched Bailoutsleuth.com for government oversight. Cuban also ventured into film distribution with Magnolia Pictures and invested in Motionloft, a storefront analytics company. His Shark Tank investments since 2011 total nearly $20 million, with mixed success. In 2022, he launched Cost Plus Drugs to lower prescription prices and disrupt the U.S. healthcare industry. His sports ventures include owning the Dallas Mavericks from 2000 until selling a majority stake in 2023. Cuban has also been active in cryptocurrency, accepting Dogecoin for Mavericks merchandise and tickets.
Mark Cuban’s investment philosophy is centered on discipline, frugality, and informed decision-making. He emphasizes “living like a student” in the early years to build a financial cushion, saving at least six months’ income before investing in low-cost index funds. Cuban strongly discourages credit card debt due to high interest rates, advocating for cash or debit card use instead. He also promotes strategic spending by negotiating prices and buying essentials in bulk when discounted. For more experienced investors, Cuban suggests deep expertise in a particular domain and holding cash until a unique opportunity arises, rather than following conventional buy-and-hold strategies. Ultimately, his approach prioritizes financial discipline, smart spending, and long-term investing for steady wealth growth.
The outspoken tech mogul has a well-defined investment strategy focused on generating wealth through smart, long-term decisions. He favors dividend-paying stocks, referring to them as “real-world value generators,” emphasizing their ability to provide steady income rather than relying solely on price appreciation. In the rapidly evolving AI sector, Cuban sees massive potential, believing that AI will be essential for every company’s survival. Comparing AI investments to buying Apple stock in the 1980s, he considers them the future of passive wealth. As he puts it, “Non-dividend stocks are basically baseball cards. But AI? That’s a whole different game.”
Cuban also acknowledges the high-risk, high-reward nature of cryptocurrency investments but warns investors to be cautious. He advises only investing in what one can afford to lose and focusing on cryptocurrencies with real-world applications. His stance is clear: “If you’re not a true adventurer, stay away.” For those seeking a more stable approach, he recommends the broader market, which has historically delivered reliable returns of around 10% annually. Additionally, his involvement with private companies through “Shark Tank” highlights the potential of venture capital, though he recognizes that most investors may need to turn to crowdfunding or venture funds to access similar opportunities.
Our Methodology
The stocks listed below were picked from the public comments that Cuban has made on his investments. He has explicitly mentioned some of his private holdings during these public appearances while only alluding to others. However, based on a careful assessment of the comments, the stocks listed below largely align with his investment philosophy. The list is compiled in descending order of the number of hedge funds having stakes in each firm, which was derived using data from over 1,000 hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey in the fourth quarter of 2024.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
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Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD)
Number of Hedge Fund Holders as of Q4: 79
Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) is a financial services company popular for its electronic trading platform that is used as a cryptocurrency wallet. Mark Cuban, former owner of the Dallas Mavericks, previously allowed fans to purchase team merchandise using Dogecoin, one of the digital assets available for trading on Robinhood’s platform. In 2021, he also disclosed that he personally owned nearly $500 worth of the cryptocurrency himself.
By the close of Q4 2023, hedge fund interest in Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) had grown significantly, with 79 hedge funds holding positions valued at $4.62 billion, according to Insider Monkey’s Q4 2024 database. This marked a substantial increase from the prior quarter, where 36 hedge funds had investments totaling $2.19 billion. This rising institutional confidence set the stage for the company’s continued expansion and strong financial performance in the following year.
In Q4 2024, Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) reported revenue surpassing $1 billion, bringing its full-year total to over $3 billion—marking a 58% increase from 2023. This impressive growth was largely fueled by the introduction of new offerings, including the Robinhood Gold Card, Robinhood Legend, and its expanding derivatives business, all of which cater to the company’s active trader base. These developments reflect Robinhood’s strategic focus on diversifying its product lineup and enhancing user engagement, which has translated into significant financial gains.
Robinhood Legend, one of its latest products, is already generating $50 million in annualized trading revenue. Customer deposits also hit a record high of $50 billion, reflecting a nearly 50% increase. Additionally, the number of subscribers to Robinhood’s premium Gold service surged by 80%, with approximately 10% of all users enrolled. Notably, over 30% of new customers in Q4 2024 opted for Gold, signaling strong demand for the platform’s premium features.
Baron FinTech Fund stated the following regarding Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) in its Q4 2024 investor letter:
“We also initiated a position in Robinhood Markets, Inc. (NASDAQ:HOOD) during the quarter. Robinhood is an online brokerage that offers free trading across stocks, options, and cryptocurrencies. Baron Capital has long invested in successful brokerage companies such as Charles Schwab, Interactive Brokers, and LPL Financial. We first met Robinhood in 2021 during their IPO process. Customers were using Robinhood because of its low-cost offering and simple user interface that makes trading easy and accessible. While we were impressed with management’s success in building a modern brokerage with a large user base and strong product-market fit, we were hesitant to invest at a cyclical peak in trading activity and fintech valuations during the middle of the COVID-era meme-stock craze. Following the IPO, trading activity soon normalized and the share price fell significantly.
After revisiting the company this past year, we believe Robinhood is a much-improved business today. Departing from its early reputation as a gamified enabler of retail speculation in meme stocks, Robinhood has been professionalized and transformed into a more durable company that can reliably gain market share and grow earnings over the long term. Some examples of the company’s maturation include: 1) providing retirement accounts that should create larger and longer-lasting client relationships; 2) launching the Gold subscription service that delivers additional value to Robinhood’s best customers; 3) introducing the web-based Legend platform that offers more advanced features for active traders; and 4) exercising expense discipline to right-size the cost base and deliver profitability alongside growth. These efforts have delivered strong financial results, with Robinhood generating annualized net new asset growth of 29%, custodied asset growth of 76%, and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 42% in the most recent quarter. Average revenue per user has also increased significantly from $60 in 2022 to $107 in the first nine months of 2024 across more than 24 million funded accounts. The customer retention rate is a very strong 95%, up from 80% three years ago…” (Click here to read the full text)
Overall, HOOD ranks 8th on our list of top stock picks from Mark Cuban’s portfolio. While we acknowledge the potential for HOOD as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than HOOD but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.