MMJ Stocks Are Down, but Pot Sales Are Soaring -- Barrons
06/05/2019 10:16 AM ET By Bill Alpert Something's not right with U.S. pot stocks. Sure, the Nasdaq Composite Index has slipped 5% in the past month, but shares of cannabis companies like Curaleaf Holdings have shrunk by as much as one third. That's unmerited, says GMP Securities' Rob Fagan, in a Wednesday morning note. American cannabis sales are steadily improving, he writes, and so the sector's selloff provides "a compelling opportunity for investors." Since April, the stock of Curaleaf (ticker: CURA.Canada or CURLF) has sunk from $11.73 to $8.03. Green Thumb Industries (GTII.Canada or GTBIF) is off 25%. Harvest Health & Recreation (HARV.Canada or HRVSF) is down nearly 30%. The industry's shriveled valuation doesn't correlate with its continuing growth. Green Thumb's home state of Illinois just voted to legalize recreational pot sales. Such sales could generate more than eight times the revenues of the state's medical marijuana sales, says Fagan. And medical sales in Illinois have been strong -- nearly doubling since December, to an annualized run-rate of $220 million. Read our recent cover story: You'd Have to Be High to Buy American Marijuana Stocks In Curaleaf's home base of Massachusetts, the first five months of recreational sales have lifted cannabis revenues to a $400 million annualized run-rate, from just $120 million in December. Florida's medical sales have grown at a 45% annual rate this year, to an annualized level of $375 million, and it only just allowed medical customers to buy smokable flower, in addition to the prior formats of cannabis oil and vape cartridges. Florida only allows medical marijuana sales. Medical pot sales in Maryland are up 55%, to a $220 million annualized level, while Nevada's recreational sales are running at a better-than $700 million rate. Even in Arizona, which is considered a mature market for medical marijuana, sales have grown 20% this year to an annualized level of $600 million. Harvest is based in the state. Working out of GMP's office in Quebec, Fagan has long thought that U.S. cannabis companies sell at an undeserved discount to Canadian counterparts like Canopy Growth (CGC). The American operators are even more of a bargain today, he says. (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 05, 2019 10:16 ET (14:16 GMT) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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