Cathie Wood Goes Bargain Hunting: 3 Stocks She Just Bought

Cathie Wood Goes Bargain Hunting: 3 Stocks She Just Bought

Rick Munarriz, The Motley Fool

Tue, August 18, 2026 at 6:43 PM GMT+3 5 min read

There are growth investors, and then there's Cathie Wood. The Ark Invest founder, CEO, and chief investment officer delivered wealth-altering results in 2020. After a few challenging years of market lagging, she's rolling again in 2025. Ark publishes its transactions at the end of every trading day, so we know exactly what's she buying.

What's she buying? Well, she kicked off the new trading week by buying shares in Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Block (NYSE: XYZ), and Nu Holdings (NYSE: NU) on Monday. In all three cases, she was adding to existing positions. Let's take a closer look at all three moves.

Missed Nvidia in 2009? This Rare Signal Is Flashing Again. In 2009, a "Double Down" signal flashed for a little-known chipmaker called Nvidia. For the first time in years, that same "Total Conviction" signal is flashing for a company 1/100th the size of Nvidia. Continue »

1. Nvidia

For a company whose moniker loosely translates to "envy" in Spanish, it's easy to see why others are envious of the artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether's market cap crown. The top provider of AI and data center chips sits alone at the table of companies with market caps exceeding $5 trillion, but it's not exactly eating alone these days.

Many smaller makers of AI accelerators and related components are outperforming Nvidia over the past year. The stock is an 11-bagger over the past five years, but its 25% jump over the past 12 months is barely ahead of the general market's return. With its business accelerating over the past year, Nvidia stock can be considered a bargain despite closing in on its May all-time high.

Despite supply chain constraints and trade restrictions into China, Nvidia's business is booming. Revenue soared 85% in its fiscal first quarter with adjusted earnings rising 139%. Investors won't have to wait long for fresh financials. Nvidia will announce its fiscal second-quarter results next week.

Analysts see revenue climbing 97% when it delivers its quarterly results after the market close next Wednesday. Adjusted net income is expected to clock in with a 98% year-over-year increase.

You can buy Nvidia for a reasonable 25 times this fiscal year's earnings and less than 18 times next year's target. With Nvidia consistently landing just ahead of analyst profit targets in recent years, the default setting would be another beat, with Wall Street pros scrambling to revise their forecasts higher. This would naturally drive forward earnings multiples lower. It's a game that Nvidia investors -- including Wood's Ark Invest -- have been benefiting from for years.

2. Block

Block stock hit a fresh 52-week high earlier this month, but with the shares retreating 3% on Monday, it may have been a good time to take advantage of the minor pullback. The fintech pioneer behind point-of-sale processor Square, digital wallet app Cash App, and its Afterpay buy now, pay later platform had a rough 2025. Revenue was flat for all of 2025, but business has begun to accelerate since the second half of last year.

Revenue has risen by 2%, 4%, 5%, and 9% over the four quarters since the midpoint of last year. Like many stocks that remain nowhere near their 2021 highs, Block is trading 72% below its peak set five summers ago.

Despite soaring 66% since bottoming out in February, the shares are still reasonably cheap. You can buy Square at a year-ahead earnings multiple in the high teens. If it can continue to deliver accelerating revenue growth -- something admittedly Block investors are not used to seeing -- Wood could have another bargain here.

3. Nu Holdings

This may not be the first company that investors think about when it comes to fintech in Latin America, but Nu Holdings has built an impressive empire in a short time. It launched Nubank in Brazil just a dozen years ago, and now more than 62% of the country's population has an account. It has since rolled out in Mexico and Colombia. It's getting ready to enter the U.S. market.

Its latest quarter was impressive. Revenue rose 39% to $5.9 billion, fueled in part by a 13% increase in accounts. Nubank was serving 138.9 million accounts at the end of June. Revenue is tripling its audience, and that's a good thing. Its customers are going all in on Nu's broader product offerings. Customer deposits are up 18%. Its credit and loan portfolio has risen 37%.

With a low fixed cost structure, seeing the monthly average revenue per active user soar 22% over the past year stacks nicely on top of its customer growth. Earnings growth jumped 49% for the second quarter that it reported late last week. If Block seems cheap, what does that mean for Nu? It's growing faster than Block, and at 13 times next year's profit target, it's the cheapest of the three names on this list.

Should you buy stock in Nvidia right now?

Before you buy stock in Nvidia, consider this:

The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Nvidia wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut are built for long-term growth and 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 $409,970!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $1,381,040!*

That performance is why people listen. With a track record of beating the S&P 500 by nearly 5x, Stock Advisor offers a distinct advantage. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built for the long haul.

See the 10 stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of August 18, 2026.

Rick Munarriz has positions in Nu Holdings and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Block, Nu Holdings, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Cathie Wood Goes Bargain Hunting: 3 Stocks She Just Bought was originally published by The Motley Fool