There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence has the potential to disrupt just about every industry. So finding a company that can facilitate AI uses across practically any company could be an incredible opportunity to invest in a transformative business.
Cathie Wood and her team at Ark Invest believe they’ve found two such companies, and they’re all in on these stocks.
Ark Invest manages six active ETFs focused on disruptive technology. With themes ranging from space exploration to advanced genomics, it’s a diverse set of investment funds. One artificial intelligence company shows up in all six of Ark’s active ETFs. Another top AI stock from Cathie Wood and her team was previously held by all six ETFs and still shows up in half of the active funds.
In other words, the team likely believes these companies can help many industries advance their AI capabilities.
The two stocks are UiPath (NYSE: PATH) and Palantir (NYSE: PLTR).
UiPath: Automating tasks like a human
UiPath specializes in robotic process automation (RPA), which helps enterprises identify and automate repetitive tasks like data entry or setting up new clients.
Ark holds shares of UiPath in all six of its active ETFs.
The company uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in several ways. In the most straightforward case, task automation requires the use of AI or machine learning to some degree, especially if the goal is to emulate human behavior in those tasks, as is sometimes necessary. Moreover, AI can be used to find processes within a business’s operations that could be candidates for automation.
However, advancements in generative AI by other companies put it at risk of falling behind. Microsoft and Salesforce, for example, started including generative AI capabilities in their competing RPA services earlier this year. UiPath released its Autopilot service in October as a response. Management sees Autopilot being valuable to anyone in an organization from automation developers to everyday users.
UiPath has shown very strong growth. Its annual recurring revenue (ARR) climbed 24% year over year last quarter, but that rate is slowing down. It was 30% at the end of last year, and management expects ARR to grow just 21% next quarter.
That said, the company still has a lot of operating leverage to gain from scaling the business. That’s evidenced in its operating margin improving more than eight percentage points last quarter. If UiPath can successfully integrate generative AI capabilities and grow its use cases while fending off bigger competitors, it could see profits soar through the end of the decade even with top-line growth in the mid-teens. That makes its enterprise value-to-sales multiple of 9.4 very digestible, and the stock could have more room to run from here.
Palantir: Using AI to generate unique insights
Palantir’s primary business is taking the data generated by an organization and processing it using artificial intelligence. It can then produce insights to improve efficiencies and help decision making.
Ark Invest holds shares of the company in its Ark Innovation ETF, Ark Next Generation Internet ETF, and the Ark Fintech Innovation ETF.
The company divides its operations into government and commercial customers. Following an early focus on government clients, the company is shifting to more commercial clients, which can provide more stable revenue compared to big government contracts that renew every few years and are less predictable.
Palantir’s shift, however, required it to innovate in how it sells its services. Its new modular approach has worked well, offering just a portion of the capabilities of Palantir’s entire platform for cost-conscious enterprises with specific needs. It’s now taking a land-and-expand approach, producing strong net revenue retention above 100%.
That said, its net revenue retention rate has fallen over the last two years. The company has made up for it by attracting more clients in recent quarters. Customer count grew 34% last quarter, including a 37% increase in the United States. That’s helped it reaccelerate revenue growth to 17% in the most recent quarter after bottoming at 13% in the second quarter.
Similar to UiPath, Palantir is showing strong margin expansion. However, it trades at a much higher EV-to-sales multiple of 16. That makes it a much riskier investment compared to many other artificial intelligence stocks. Despite the strong potential for Palantir’s platform to help just about every business improve operations, I’d avoid the stock for now and look to put cash to work in something with a better valuation.
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Adam Levy has positions in Microsoft and Salesforce. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Microsoft, Palantir Technologies, Salesforce, and UiPath. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Is All In on These 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks was originally published by The Motley Fool
