Following more than a month of back-and-forth debates on Capitol Hill, the finishing touches are being placed on the next round of fiscal stimulus. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the $1.9 trillion relief package into law within a matter of days. In doing so, he'll be authorizing the disbursement of $1,400 stimulus checks to over 100 million Americans in the coming weeks.
For many Americans, their $1,400 stimulus payout will be used to pay rent or mortgage, cover utility bills, buy food, or perhaps even shore up an emergency fund. But for other recipients who haven't been adversely affected by the pandemic, this incoming stimulus check could be best put to work in the stock market.
The pertinent question is: What stocks to buy?
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Since the end of the Great Recession, growth stocks have benefited from record-low lending rates, which has made them virtually unstoppable. Then again, value stocks have a history of outperforming during the early years of an economic recovery. Investors should aim to incorporate both growth and value, if they can.
Now, here's the kicker. What if I said you could find this marriage of growth and value in penny stocks (i.e., companies with a share price of $5 or less)? Generally speaking, penny stocks are risky investments that often aren't worth the trouble. Another way to think about stocks with a very low share price is that they're usually priced low for a good reason.
But after perusing over 200 publicly traded penny stocks with a market cap of at least $200 million, three stood out as being capable of doubling your $1,400 stimulus check.
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OrganiGram Holdings
It may come as no surprise to some investors that Canadian marijuana stock OrganiGram Holdings (OGI -1.03%) offers stimulus check-doubling upside to investors. That's because cannabis will likely be one of the fastest-growing industries this decade, and OrganiGram recently became a favorite of the Reddit-based frenzy.
Looking beyond the short-term euphoria associated with retail investors on Reddit, you'll see that OrganiGram offers a number of competitive advantages. For example, it's the only major Canadian grower based in the Atlantic. That might help it become the preferred supplier of the Atlantic-based provinces -- a less-populated region of Canada, but one with higher cannabis-use rates than the national average.
As another example, OrganiGram operates just one facility (Moncton, New Brunswick). Having a single cultivation and processing site makes it easier for the company to realign its output and expenses to match prevailing market conditions. It also doesn't hurt that OrganiGram's implementation of three-tiered growing systems in its licensed rooms is helping to boost its yield per square foot.
The long-term growth driver for OrganiGram is likely to be the company's hefty investments into cannabis derivatives. It spent $15 million Canadian to purchase automated equipment capable of producing up to 4 million kilos of chocolate-infused edibles each year. OrganiGram also developed a proprietary powder that can speed up how quickly cannabinoids take effect in beverages.
With the Canadian pot industry maturing by the day, we should begin to see OrganiGram's investments and positioning start to really pay off.
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Valens
It's an industry with growth prospects so nice, it's worth hitting twice! Another penny stock that has the potential to double your $1,400 stimulus check is Canadian cannabinoid-based products company Valens (VLNS).
Similar to OrganiGram, the chart for Valens isn't pretty. That's because Canadian regulators at the federal and provincial level have had many miscues with the marijuana rollout. For instance, Health Canada delayed the launch of higher-margin derivatives by two months. Meanwhile, key provinces (ahem, Ontario) were unable to approve licenses for dispensaries in a timely manner. The end result has been supply backlogs for high-margin derivative products.
Now, for some good news. Ontario shelved its lottery system for assigning dispensary licenses at the end of 2019 and has made serious progress opening new retail locations. Licensed producers are also bringing supply in-line with demand. This suggests that Valens' processing operations should begin to normalize in 2021 after sales whipsawed over the past two years.
Even more important is Valens' foray into white-label manufacturing for Cannabis 2.0 products. Following the closing of its acquisition of LYF Food Technologies last week, Valens has new avenues to manufacture marijuana edibles. With the company also realigning its oil products to target valued-focused customers and offering plans to move into the health and wellness category, a return to recurring profitability appears imminent.
Although Canada's pot industry remains a work-in-progress, ancillary marijuana stock Valens looks primed for success.
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Yamana Gold
A third penny stock with the ability to double investors' $1,400 stimulus checks is gold stock Yamana Gold (AUY). The bull case for Yamana involves both a macro outlook for the metals it produces and company-specific drivers.
Despite hitting nine-month lows last week, the outlook for the lustrous yellow metal is bright. Bond yields remain historically low, the Federal Reserve has pledged to leave its federal funds rate untouched through 2023, and the U.S. federal government is about to have spent around $5 trillion on the pandemic. This all points to a ballooning money supply and a weaker dollar, all of which favors a higher gold price.
As for Yamana, it stands to benefit from higher output and an improved balance sheet. After generating 901,000 gold equivalent ounces (GEO) in 2020, the expectation is for a midpoint of 1 million GEO annually between 2021 and 2023, with a slight uptick in gold production and a reduction in silver output. Expansion at the flagship Canadian Malartic mine continues to pay off, with the Odyssey mine expected to begin production in 2023 and lead Yamana's growth through 2039.
In terms of Yamana's balance sheet, the company has reduced its net debt by over $1 billion in the last five years. With $181.5 million in operating cash flow in the fourth quarter alone, the company has the opportunity to push to a net cash position in the coming years.
Valued at only 4.5 times estimated cash flow in 2021 and 2022, Yamana Gold looks like a serious bargain.
