With warm weather upon us and people in the U.S. eager to make up for lost time from last year, it'd be a shock if marijuana sales did anything other than surge. Canny cannabis investors are, understandably, keen to cash in before the moment passes.
It's not enough to just buy shares of the fastest-growing cannabis cultivators, though. Quick growth and profitably are challenging to say the least, and most marijuana companies struggle to achieve either. Let's examine three cannabis stocks that are positioned to run hot this month -- and for the foreseeable future, too.
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1. Innovative Industrial Properties
Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR -0.92%) is an evergreen cannabis stock because it has something that every other marijuana company needs: money. Cash-strapped medicinal marijuana cultivators can go to IIP and sell their indoor greenhouse space to raise funds. Then, Innovative leases the real estate back to the seller, gaining a monthly rent check in the process. These "sale-leaseback" transactions have made the company into the cannabis industry's real estate tycoon, and there's no sign of that status slipping anytime soon.
IIP is a great stock for this summer for two reasons. First, it stands to gain from the growth of its industry, which may soon accelerate if cannabis is legalized in the U.S. But it doesn't need to jockey for market share of marijuana products to remain profitable. If anything, intensifying competition will make its customers all the more desperate to make a deal to get its cash infusions.
Second, as a landlord, IIP's revenue is extremely consistent, so it can afford to pay a dividend that currently yields about 2.8%. As time passes, there's a good chance that dividend will increase, so investors who buy the stock now will get an even larger benefit.
2. Green Thumb Industries
Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF 5.56%) is a traditional cannabis company that sells marijuana products directly to consumers. Importantly, its presence in a smattering of the most vibrant adult-use and medicinal cannabis markets in the U.S. enabled it to grow its quarterly revenue by nearly 90% year over year as of Q1. It's also one of the few profitable public marijuana sellers, though its margin is still quite thin at 4.56%.
The company's secret sauce is careful penetration of its markets. On July 1, it completed the acquisition of a medicinal marijuana provider in Virginia, leaving Green Thumb with a full 20% of the state's licenses to grow cannabis. Because other operators are constrained by the number of licenses available, they may not even be able to compete until 2024, when the state's will begin to allow sales for recreational use. At that point, Green Thumb will be so established in the market that it might not even struggle against new entrants.
In states like Massachusetts, where Green Thumb already has a presence to address the needs of adult-use as well as medicinal marijuana customers, other new acquisitions are deepening its market penetration. In short, there aren't many other cannabis businesses that can simultaneously expand revenue and operational footprints so stridently while remaining profitable, and that's what makes Green Thumb so exciting for investors.
3. Trulieve Cannabis
As with Green Thumb, Trulieve Cannabis's (TCNNF 10.28%) skill is balancing expansion into new regional medical marijuana markets while maintaining a strong bottom line. Building on its leading 48% share of the Florida market, Trulieve is currently working toward new regional centers to power future growth. But don't take that to mean its present growth is slow. Its profit margin is 11.22%, and its quarterly revenue rose in excess of 101% year over year as of the first quarter of 2021.
To ensure that it can continue to scale to meet rising demand, the company is expanding its cultivation facilities in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, thereby establishing a new production hub in the northeast. That new output capacity will be necessary, given that as of July 7, Trulieve's operations in West Virginia have commenced for the first time. And it just purchased a new dispensary facility in Massachusetts on June 30. So investors can expect significant new revenue to register starting in the next quarter.
If Trulieve's regional strategy works as well in the northeast as it did in Florida, its stock will continue to be a winner for shareholders.
