3 Stocks That Cathie Wood Bought on Tuesday
Cathie Wood bought shares of Taiwan Semiconductor, Airbnb, and AMD on Tuesday.
TSMC and AMD have rallied roughly 60% since bottoming out in April. The AI revolution is spurring demand that is overcoming near-term political headwinds.
Airbnb's name may start with the letters "A" and "I," but it's going the other way. Its revenue is declining for the fourth year in a row.
10 stocks we like better than Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing ›
The generally rising market over the past few weeks have awakened the spirits of growth investors, and that's naturally also a wake-up call for Cathie Wood. The CEO, co-founder, and ace stock picker at Ark Invest was particularly busy on Tuesday, adding to 10 of her existing positions across her family of aggressive growth exchange-traded funds.
I want to take a closer look at three of those expanded positions. Ark Invest bought some more Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE: TSM), Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB), and Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD) on Tuesday. Let's check out what Wood is buying this week.
Tech investors know that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing is the world's largest foundry, commanding two-thirds of the global pure-play foundry market. It may not be a household name outside of tech circles, but it's still the eighth most valuable company by market cap among U.S. exchange-listed stocks.
Business has been booming for TSMC. It came through with another beat in its latest quarter that it posted in April. Revenue rose 42% through the first three months of this year, or a 35% step-up in U.S. dollars. The bottom line was even better. Net income soared 60% in the first quarter. Earnings have outpaced analyst projections consistently over the past year. TSMC's net margin was a strong 43% for the quarter, debunking the myth that this a low-margin cyclical commodity play.
Wood wasn't the only one feeling more bullish about TSMC on Tuesday. Susquehanna lifted its price target on the shares from $250 to $255, implying nearly 20% of near-term upside to the shares. The quantitative analyst firm notes that channel checks show that while shipments have been weak for the smartphone market, the boom in artificial intelligence (AI)-related wafer shipments is more than bailing out the weakness elsewhere. Foreign exchange swings may eat into the top-line upside on the way down to the bottom line, but the outlook remains positive for the leader with at least a few more years of market dominance in its leading-edge niche.
Yes, the $5 bump in the price target is just a 2% increase. It's a modest revision for a stock that has now soared almost 60% since bottoming out in April. However, it is a notable reversal for Susquehanna after lowering its price target on TSMC from $265 to $250 back in April.
Unlike the other two stocks in this piece, which are experiencing a resurgence on the strength of the AI revolution, Airbnb is traveling in the opposite direction. The leading platform for booking vacation properties is seeing its revenue growth decelerate sharply for the fourth year in a row. It's still positive, but analysts are now holding out for single-digit growth in 2025.
The fallout of the trade war and geopolitical hiccups is making it dicey to book dreamy international getaways, and this is before we start to consider the impact that all of this will have on the economy and our ability to afford bucket list vacation itineraries. Revenue rose a mere 6% for Airbnb in the first quarter of this year, and reported net income declined. Airbnb is still making money. Its has generated $4.4 billion in free cash flow over the past four quarters.
CEO Brian Chesky sold a small number of shares late last month, but Wood isn't following suit. Ark Invest is increasing its position in Airbnb.
AMD has been a laggard among tech companies with serious skin in the AI revolution, but the bulls are starting to make up for lost time. The shares are up 66% since their April low. The stock is still down nearly 20% over the past year.
Business is picking up, largely on the strength of demand for data center solutions. Revenue rose 36% in AMD's latest quarter, accelerating for the fourth quarter in a row. The trade war and the resulting export restrictions into China are holding back results, but the numbers are still strong. AMD came through with a 55% surge in earnings per share in last month's report.
AMD's data center business experienced a 57% year-over-year boost in revenue, but could be starting to make some moves elsewhere. AMD collected some bullish analyst comments following an AI event last week. On Tuesday of this week it turned heads when Microsoft announced that it would be working with AMD to co-engineer silicon solutions. This will include the next generation of Xbox consoles. It could finally be "game on" for AMD shareholders.
Before you buy stock in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $658,297!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $883,386!*
Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 995% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 173% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join .
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025
Rick Munarriz has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Airbnb, Microsoft, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
3 Stocks That Cathie Wood Bought on Tuesday was originally published by The Motley Fool
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Verge
36 minutes ago
- The Verge
Apple keeps pulling its own ads
Apple has taken down a new ad just one day after posting it, making it the fourth one removed in just over a year, as spotted earlier by MacRumors. The nearly eight-minute-long ad, titled 'The Parent Presentation,' featured comedian Martin Herlihy giving students advice on how to convince their parents to buy them a Mac. Apple posted the ad on Friday, but it disappeared from YouTube and the company's webpage for college students on Saturday. The iPhone maker also released an accompanying 81-slide presentation template that's supposed to give parents '45 undeniable reasons why a Mac is essential to college,' which still remains available for download on its site. Last May, Apple apologized for its 'Crush!' commercial, which showed a hydraulic press flattening a piano, record player, paint, and other creative tools, only to lift and show its new iPad Pro at the end. It was meant to demonstrate how many creative tasks can be completed with the device, but it sparked widespread backlash instead. Apple pulled the commercial from TV before removing it from YouTube. Months later, Apple pulled a 10-minute ad, called 'Out of Office OOO,' which showed a group of coworkers using Apple products on a business trip in Thailand, after receiving criticism from Thai citizens and lawmakers for portraying the country in a stereotypical and outdated way. Then, in March of this year, Apple took down an iPhone 16 ad with Last of Us star Bella Ramsey. Apple used the ad to show off an AI-upgraded Siri with features that aren't available yet, like recalling the name of someone they met months ago. Unlike the other ads pulled by Apple over the past year, there's no clear reason why 'The Parent Presentation' was taken down — other than some users on social media calling it 'cringe,' or raising questions about who the commercial's target audience was. The Verge reached out to Apple with a request for comment but didn't immediately hear back.
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
The AI Hype Trap: Why Most CEOs Struggle To Unlock Real Business Value
Diganta Sengupta is a seasoned technology leader with deep expertise in artificial intelligence, Gen AI, Cloud computing, and blockchain. While collaborating with clients on cutting-edge AI initiatives, I've had a front-row seat to the rapidly evolving landscape of generative AI (GenAI). There's no doubt that it's a transformative force, and the excitement is palpable. Leaders see GenAI as a powerful enabler of innovation, efficiency and even cultural change within their organizations. But beneath the surface of this enthusiasm, a more sobering reality has started to emerge. I observed leadership become enthusiastic about leveraging AI to unlock insights from massive operational datasets, but the reality quickly became evident. Despite deploying advanced models, the organization lacked the foundational elements for scalable impact. In other words, data was siloed, inconsistent and often not AI-ready. Teams were stretched thin across too many pilot projects without clear alignment to business workflows. Flashy prototypes drew attention but failed to deliver lasting value without reengineering the underlying processes. This mirrors a broader trend. Seventy percent of CEOs fear that flawed AI strategies could lead to their removal, while 54% fear that competitors may already have more advanced AI implementations. AI systems learn from historical data. If that data encodes human biases against certain demographics, regions or business units, the AI will reproduce and even amplify those biases. While developing a prototype using certain datasets for a utility company, for example, I grappled with significant challenges around bias and fairness. These issues persisted despite the presence of seemingly robust governance frameworks. As we trained our AI models on historical operational and customer data, I noticed embedded biases tied to region, demographics and internal processes. These biases not only surfaced in the model outputs but were, in some cases, amplified. My two cents: CEOs must invest in bias-detection tools, diverse development teams and transparency mechanisms long before deploying AI at scale. Without these guardrails, AI initiatives stall as risk-averse stakeholders balk at unverified "black-box" systems. In another project integrating a large language model (LLM)-powered chatbot with an enterprise ERP system, I encountered AI hallucinations as the model confidently generated inaccurate and misleading information about customer orders. Despite rigorous prompt engineering and system tuning, we noticed that the LLM occasionally fabricated responses about inventory levels or order status. This experience echoed findings from a 2024 Boston Consulting Group survey, which revealed that while 75% of executives ranked AI among their top priorities, only 25% reported realizing substantial benefits from their AI initiatives. Tackle hallucinations with robust validation pipelines, keep human-in-the-loop review for critical outputs and ongoing monitoring of model performance. This is where the challenge becomes even more complex. In many of my AI pilots in the oil and gas sector, I've repeatedly seen issues like inconsistent formats, missing metadata and a lack of standardized governance across departments severely impact model performance. Despite having large volumes of rich data, much of it couldn't be used without extensive manual cleanup. Efforts to unify data governance were often sidelined in favor of launching high-profile AI initiatives. A Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey similarly found that most companies' data is largely not ready for enterprise-wide AI, citing poor data quality as a key barrier. Without strong cross-functional data stewardship and quality assurance, even the most advanced AI models fall short. Before spending on fancy models, CEOs must champion cross-functional data governance, setting up practices on creating common taxonomies, automated data-quality checks and centralized platforms. Only then can AI be relied upon to deliver accurate, actionable insights. Working on the previously mentioned utility AI project also brought light to another critical and often underestimated concern—security and governance challenges that surround enterprise AI deployments. As we integrated sensitive operational and customer data into AI workflows, it became clear how vulnerable these systems can become without rigorous controls. Inadequate access management, insufficient encryption and lack of monitoring can create openings for potential ransomware attacks and unauthorized data exposure. In one survey, 35% of respondents cited mistakes or errors with real-world consequences and 34% pointed to not achieving expected value as top barriers. Both are rooted in security vulnerabilities and governance shortcomings. CEOs must elevate AI risk management to the same level as financial or operational risk. This includes rigorous model-risk frameworks, data-privacy impact assessments and alignment with evolving regulations such as the EU's AI Act. To harness the full potential of AI, I recommend applying practical, accountable strategies that organizations can adopt to drive real, scalable impact. • Establish cross-functional data governance. Form a governance council with IT, compliance and operations to ensure data ownership, accountability and consistent standards. • Implement data quality controls. Deploy automated checks for outliers, schema validation and data freshness to improve input reliability and mitigate bias. • Address LLM hallucinations with RAG. Use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), prompt chaining and fallback mechanisms to reduce hallucinations. • Align AI projects with business goals. Prioritize initiatives tied directly to key KPIs (for example, safety, cost reduction, etc.), which can improve adoption and leadership support. • Pivot away from noncritical use cases. Reallocate resources from low-impact projects to high-impact workflows like downtime alerts for field engineers. • Focus on responsible AI deployment. Emphasize transparency, accountability and strategic value delivery to build trust and ensure scalability. CEOs who view AI adoption as a multidimensional transformation rather than a plug-and-play technology will be the ones ready to move beyond the hype and truly harness the AI power. The future of competitive advantage lies not just in having AI, but in embedding it thoughtfully and responsibly into the fabric of the enterprise. This will help transform AI from a conceptual promise to a tangible asset and help drive innovation and growth for the organizations. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
DoorDash, AMD upgraded: Wall Street's top analyst calls
The most talked about and market moving research calls around Wall Street are now in one place. Here are today's research calls that investors need to know, as compiled by The 5 Upgrades: Raymond James upgraded DoorDash (DASH) to Strong Buy from Outperform with a price target of $260, up from $215. The firm believes the synergy potential with Deliveroo is underappreciated at current share levels, forecasting mid-teens EBITDA accretion in 2026 and high-teens in 2027. Melius Research upgraded AMD (AMD) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $175, up from $110, citing the view that "many things have changed for the better since the beginning of the year." Deutsche Bank upgraded Estee Lauder (EL) to Buy from Hold with a price target of $95, up from $71. The firm sees increasing evidence that the company's strategy is diversifying well beyond China and travel retail for future growth, underpinned by moves to accelerate innovation and migrate decision-making geographically closer to where business gets done. BofA upgraded Omnicom (OMC) to Neutral from Underperform with an unchanged price target of $80. The firm shares investor concerns around the pending Interpublic Group (IPG) merger and related integration risks, but the firm's recent trip to the Cannes Lions and meeting with various industry stakeholders provide "enough confidence on both structural trends and cyclical dynamics" to upgrade the shares. Wells Fargo upgraded FMC (FMC) to Overweight from Equal Weight with a price target of $50, up from $41. The firm is "increasingly confident" that 2024 will mark the near-term bottom for FMC's earnings given positive market trends and strategic actions. Top 5 Downgrades: Craig-Hallum downgraded Oklo (OKLO) to Hold from Buy with a price target of $59, up from $43. Given its "build, own, operate" model, Oklo is charting a regulatory path in which it will be both the nuclear technology provider and the project owner with it supplying baseload zero emissions power and heat to end users in the AI data centers and other applications, the analyst tells investors. Scotiabank downgraded AST SpaceMobile (ASTS) to Sector Perform from Outperform with an unchanged price target of $45.40. The firm cites valuation for the downgrade with the shares above the price target following the "impressive rally." BofA downgraded Equifax (EFX) to Neutral from Buy with a price target of $285, down from $300. The firm was "underwhelmed" by the company's investor day. BMO Capital downgraded Dow Inc. (DOW) to Underperform from Market Perform with a price target of $22, down from $29. The "significant weakness" across the company's end markets resulting in soft pricing and lower volumes is likely to result in "severely challenged" Q2 EBITDA and second half of the year estimates "coming solidly lower," the analyst tells investors in a research note. KeyBanc downgraded KBR (KBR) to Sector Weight from Overweight without a price target after the Department of Defense formally terminated KBR's HomeSafe program for cause last Wednesday. The firm believes that for investors to appreciate KBR's discount valuation, they "needed a defensible rebasing" of the long-term outlook. Top 5 Initiations: JPMorgan initiated coverage of DraftKings (DKNG) with an Overweight rating and $50 price target. The firm says land-based U.S. gaming faces macro uncertainty and risk of tariffs pressuring consumers in the second half of 2025. JPMorgan initiated coverage of Penn Entertainment (PENN) with an Overweight rating and $24 price target. The firm says land-based U.S. gaming faces macro uncertainty and risk of tariffs pressuring consumers in the second half of 2025. GLJ Research initiated coverage of GE Vernova (GEV) with a Buy rating and $702 price target. The firm says investors and analysts are increasingly stepping away from GE Vernova, a "best-in-class" power generation manufacturing story, citing valuation and a slowing event-path. TD Cowen initiated coverage of Soleno Therapeutics (SLNO) with a Buy rating and $110 price target. The firm says Vykat XR "bucked the trend of clinical shortcomings" in Prader-Willi syndrome by becoming the first-approved treatment for hyperphagia in this devastating genetic syndrome. Craig-Hallum initiated coverage of Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) with a Buy rating and $75 price target. The Sphere is disrupting the traditional venue model with "awe-inspiring" and immersive live events and unique original "Sphere Studios" shows, but one that can charge premium pricing, have significantly better utilization, and generate substantial advertising revenue via the Exosphere, the analyst tells investors in a research note.
