Mark Cuban is best known as a judge on the TV show Shark Tank and owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team. Cuban launched his career as a tech entrepreneur but has been heavily involved in stock and private investing since the late 1990s. We’ll examine Cuban’s investing approach and highlight several of Mark Cuban’s top stock picks over the past 20 years.
Who is Mark Cuban?
Mark Cuban is an American entrepreneur and investor. His career began in 1983 with the founding of MicroSolutions, a software reselling and consulting company that emerged during the early days of personal computing. After MicroSolutions sold to CompuServe for $6 million in 1990, Cuban co-founded the online audio streaming service Broadcast.com. Broadcast.com went public in 1998, then was acquired by Yahoo! in 1999 for $5.7 billion.
Following the dot-com boom, Cuban focused on tech stock investing and used proceeds from his Broadcast.com sale to acquire an ownership stake in the Dallas Mavericks. He joined the judging panel of Shark Tank in 2011 and remains active on the show while expanding into cryptocurrency investing. Cuban also launched Cost Plus Drugs in 2022, which offers pharmaceutical drugs at lower prices than existing healthcare companies.
Mark Cuban Investment Style
Two major themes define Mark Cuban’s investing approach.
First is his enduring focus on tech and emerging technology. Both MicroSolutions and Broadcast.com, the companies that generated his wealth in the 1980s and 1990s, capitalized on the rapidly expanding PC and internet markets. After the dot-com boom, Cuban invested in companies like Amazon that leveraged the internet in innovative ways. He backed Netflix because he recognized the potential of online streaming. Today he champions cryptocurrency as the next evolution of internet technology.
Second is Cuban’s emphasis on private ventures. His Shark Tank role positions him as a small-scale venture capitalist for emerging entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, some of Cuban’s largest investments are in private holdings like the Dallas Mavericks and cryptocurrency startups. He also owns several self-founded companies, including Cost Plus Drugs.
Mark Cuban Stock Picks
While many of Mark Cuban’s largest investments lie outside the stock market, he has made several notable stock picks, particularly in the tech sector.
Amazon
Mark Cuban invested in Amazon stock in 2015 at around $25 per share. Cuban recognized that consumers had embraced Amazon for everyday purchases, positioning the company to massively expand its footprint compared to traditional advertisers.
In 2019, Cuban revealed he held close to $1 billion in Amazon shares. This was before the COVID-19 pandemic, which nearly doubled Amazon’s share price. Amazon shares have since returned to near-2019 levels, though it’s unclear whether Cuban adjusted his position before the 2022 market decline.
Yahoo!
One of Mark Cuban’s shrewdest stock trades involved Yahoo!, the company that acquired Cuban’s Broadcast.com for $5.7 billion in stock in 1999. Rather than simply holding the Yahoo! shares he received, Cuban used options to hedge his risk. He wrote call options and bought put options on Yahoo! shares, capping his upside if shares rose while limiting his downside if they fell.
He was concerned that the tech market couldn’t continue climbing indefinitely. Cuban proved prescient as Yahoo! stock collapsed in 2001 during the dot-com crash.
Netflix
Cuban announced on Twitter in 2014 that he was investing in Netflix at around $50 per share. He was bullish on online video streaming’s future, drawing from his experience with Broadcast.com and audio streaming in the 1990s.
Netflix stock surged from 2014-2021, reaching an all-time high above $680 per share in late 2021. Despite Netflix’s decline during the subsequent market downturn, Cuban’s shares remain worth more than five times his 2014 purchase price.
Mark Cuban is a longtime Twitter user who confirmed buying shares in 2017, though he never disclosed his initial investment size. At the time, Twitter shares traded around $17. Cuban cited Twitter’s artificial intelligence advances and newsfeed algorithm improvements as his investment rationale.
Cuban reinvested in Twitter during the pandemic-driven 2020 market crash, when shares fell to around $25. Shareholders received $54.20 per share when Elon Musk took Twitter private in 2022, though it’s unclear if Cuban held until the buyout.
Live Nation
Cuban also purchased Live Nation stock during the March 2020 market crash. He believed Live Nation was a strong company that would survive the pandemic, and the crash offered an opportunity to buy shares at fire-sale prices.
Cuban paid around $35 per share, and Live Nation now trades above $75 per share.
Mark Cuban Lifetime Performance
Mark Cuban isn’t a fund manager and doesn’t file 13F statements, making it difficult to assess his exact investment performance. However, he made the Forbes 400 list in 2022 with an estimated net worth of $4.6 billion.
The stocks Cuban is known to have purchased in the past decade have all significantly outperformed the market. Amazon and Netflix rank among the most profitable stocks of the past decade, gaining roughly 285% and 440%, respectively, since Cuban initiated positions. Twitter stock gained 220% between Cuban’s purchase and Elon Musk’s acquisition, while Live Nation is up 115% since 2020.
Notably, Cuban’s gains could have been even greater if he sold at the market’s late 2021 peak. He predicted a coming market decline as interest rates rose, making it likely that he reduced positions before share prices began falling.
Outside the stock market, the Dallas Mavericks represents perhaps Cuban’s best overall investment. He bought his ownership share in 2000 for $287 million. Today, the team is worth an estimated $2.2 billion, with Cuban controlling 85% of the franchise.
Cuban has also invested about $29 million through Shark Tank. He estimates that one-quarter of deals made through the show have performed well, half have earned back his initial investment, and one-quarter have lost money.
Most recently, Cuban was exposed to the collapse of cryptocurrency firm Voyager Digital, with which the Dallas Mavericks had a partnership. Cuban hasn’t revealed potential losses from Voyager Digital’s bankruptcy, though this setback appears to have made minimal impact on his net worth.
Conclusion: Mark Cuban Stock Picks
Mark Cuban is an extraordinarily successful tech investor, Dallas Mavericks owner, and Shark Tank personality. His estimated $4.6 billion net worth stems partly from well-timed investments in companies like Amazon and Netflix.
