SoFi's customer growth has been driving phenomenal financial results.
Roku aims to dominate its niche in the streaming industry and expand its footprint in new international markets.
Cathie Wood, founder and CEO of investment management firm Ark Invest, can be a somewhat polarizing figure. Some believe her focus on companies with strong innovative qualities gives her actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) unique strengths. And indeed, those Ark ETFs did outperform the broader market during the challenging early pandemic years. But as a Morningstar analysis pointed out early last year, over the longer term, the performance of Ark ETFs as a group has been terrible.
Regardless, one thing is for sure: At least some of the dozens of stocks in Wood's various innovation-centric portfolios look attractive right now. Two that I think will perform well over the next decade are SoFi Technologies (NASDAQ: SOFI) and Roku (NASDAQ: ROKU).
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SoFi Technologies' stock has been on fire lately. Propelled by its excellent financial results, its share price has increased by 85% so far this year. In the second quarter, SoFi's revenue rose by 44% year over year to $858 million. Importantly, the company's recurring fee-based revenue increased by 72% to $378 million, which was approximately 44% of its total sales.
SoFi's membership and products per member metrics continued to move in the right direction, too, and its net income for the period was up 459% to $97.3 million. The fintech company, which in its early years focused solely on student loan refinancing, has transformed itself into a full-fledged financial services provider with a diversified lineup of products, including investment services and various types of loans. Furthermore, SoFi is an entirely online bank, so it lacks the overhead costs associated with operating physical branches.
SoFi has been rewarded for its transformation, but it has plenty of room to keep growing over the next decade. The company should continue implementing similar strategies and further expanding the range of services it offers. It should also gain more members.
Every day, another set of young adults reaches the milestone of needing to open their first bank accounts, and SoFi's digital flavor is precisely what that cohort tends to prefer. And as those younger SoFi members mature, enter the workforce, and begin to require a wider range of banking services, it will have many opportunities to convince them to expand their use of its ecosystem.
It's worth noting, however, that even within its current roster of members, there is room for the company to increase its revenue. SoFi had 11.7 million members using a total of 17.1 million products as of the end of the second quarter, which translates to a product-to-member ratio of just 1.5. By cross-selling additional services to those members, the company could boost its sales even higher. All these opportunities could grant significant tailwinds to SoFi over the next decade. Although the stock has outperformed broader equities this year, it remains worth buying and holding through 2035.
Many people subscribe to multiple streaming services. Roku makes it easier to keep track of them and access them, thanks to its platform that supports most of the major ones (and a wide array of smaller ones). As of the end of 2024, Roku had nearly 90 million streaming households, and its platform supported over 120 billion hours of streaming annually. The company's deep ecosystem makes it a top target for advertisers, which provide the bulk of its revenue. Roku's financial results have been strong this year. In the second quarter, the company's revenue increased by 15% year over year to $1.1 billion.
The streaming specialist even reported a net income of $10.5 million, compared to the net loss of $34 million it recorded in the prior-year period. Roku's trailing-12-month free cash flow jumped by 23% year over year to $392 million.
Roku recently signed a partnership with Amazon, another leader in the connected TV space. The two will grant advertisers in the U.S. access to their combined audiences, comprising 80 million households in the country, exclusively through Amazon's ad platform. This deal addresses some key pain points for advertisers that have struggled to target viewers across various connected TV platforms effectively. According to Roku, early tests of its integration with Amazon yielded positive results: Advertisers reached 40% more unique viewers with the same budgets and reduced repeat ads per viewer by 30%.
So, companies are getting more bang for their advertising buck, which is sure to attract even more of them and lead to higher ad revenue for Roku. The deal highlights Roku's deep ecosystem as the leader in the connected TV space in North America, as well as the strength of the network effects that it benefits from.
With the streaming industry still expanding, the company has ample room for growth, especially considering that the market remains underpenetrated in many parts of the world. Roku has been making pushes into other countries where it doesn't have as strong a presence. The company could deliver excellent returns in the next decade by implementing internationally the same strategies that have made it so successful in the U.S.
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Prosper Junior Bakiny has positions in Amazon. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Amazon and Roku. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.