$2.1 billion is hardly pocket change. But ambitious Florida marijuana company Trulieve Cannabis (TCNNF +0.68%) is ponying up such a pile -- of its stock, anyway -- to buy West Coast peer Harvest Health & Recreation (HRVSF +0.00%).
As he reveals in this segment from Motley Fool Live, veteran Fool contributor Eric Volkman thinks this is money (well, technically, company stock) well spent. He explains his reasons why with healthcare and cannabis bureau chief Corinne Cardina. This video was recorded on May 21.
Corinne Cardina: Would you say that Trulieve looks like a buy based on [the Harvest] acquisition?
Eric Volkman: Yeah. It's not a cheap stock, and it's not a cheap stock because Trulieve until now it's following Harvest, has been one of the very rare, and very special, profitable multi-state operators (MSOs). They are barely multi-state. Outside of Florida -- until Harvest again -- they had only small operations in these places like Pennsylvania.
But yeah, they were profitable, not always and because they were one of the few profitable MSOs, investors really latched onto them. They're not cheap. But what I like about Trulieve is they are very good at maintaining and even expanding their market share in Florida. They know their market very well, and I think their strategy up until now has been sensible to places that they ventured, places like Pennsylvania that are limited licensed states where you have only a small number of licenses and therefore, theoretically low competition.
I think Trulieve is pricey, but if any marijuana stock is worth their pricing it's Trulieve. That profitability is going to be on the hook with Harvest because Harvest, like a lot of its other peers, is consistently unprofitable. In their last reported quarter, Q1, they lost almost $23 million. It's not the end of the world, but with the combined company, it's going to affect the results.
Having said that, they are growing in terms of the top line. In their quarter, they made almost $89 million and that was on a quarter-by-quarter basis 27% higher, which is admirable for the most recent set of results it's higher and it was slightly more than double year-on-year. I think Trulieve is getting one of the better assets and again, I like the geographical, complimentary nature of it.
