Top Marijuana Stocks for April 2021

The marijuana industry is made up of companies that either support or are engaged in the research, development, distribution, and sale of medical and recreational marijuana. Cannabis has begun to gain wider acceptance and has been legalized in a growing number of nations, states, and other jurisdictions for recreational, medicinal, and other uses. Some of the biggest companies in the marijuana industry include Canopy Growth Corp. (CGC), Cronos Group Inc. (CRON), and Tilray Inc. (TLRY). Many big marijuana companies have continued to post sizable net losses as they focus on investing in equipment to speed up revenue growth, which remains strong despite the economic disruption spurred by the pandemic.

Marijuana stocks, as represented by the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ), have dramatically outperformed the broader market. MJ has provided a total return of 122.1% over the past 12 months, nearly double the Russell 1000’s total return of 66.1%. These market performance numbers and all statistics in the tables below are as of March 24, 2021.

Here are the top 5 marijuana stocks with the best value, the fastest growth, and the most momentum.

Value investing is a factor-based investing strategy in which you pick stocks that you believe are trading for less than what they are intrinsically worth, usually by measuring the ratio of the stock’s price to one or more fundamental business metrics. A widely accepted value metric is the price-to-earnings ratio (P/E Ratio). Value investors believe that if a business is cheap compared to its intrinsic value, in this case as measured by its P/E ratio, the stock price may rise faster than others as the price comes back in line with the worth of the company. These are the marijuana stocks with the lowest 12-month trailing price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio.

Source: YCharts

• Alcanna Inc.: Alcanna is a Canada-based retailer of alcoholic beverages and cannabis. The company operates liquor stores that sell wines, beers, and spirts, and retail cannabis stores. Alcanna employs about 1,800 people and operates 250 liquor and cannabis retail outlets.
• NIC Inc.: NIC offers services to help governments use the Internet to provide services to citizens and businesses. The company is the nation’s largest provider of digital government services, sites, and secure payment processing. NIC also offers a platform for government licensing and regulation of the cannabis industry. The company serves more than 7,000 federal, state, and local government agencies throughout the U.S. NIC announced on February 10 that it has agreed to be acquired by Tyler Technologies Inc. (TYL) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.3 billion. Tyler Technologies is a provider of integrated software and technology services to local, state, and federal government entities. The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2021.
• Innovative Industrial Properties Inc.: Innovative Industrial Properties is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that engages in the acquisition, disposition, development, and management of industrial facilities leased to tenants in the medical cannabis industry. The company’s portfolio consists of specialized industrial and greenhouse buildings leased to state-licensed medical-use cannabis cultivators across the U.S.
• Village Farms International Inc.: Village Farms International is a Canada-based agricultural producer. In addition to growing vegetables like tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers, the company also produces cannabis. The company distributes fresh produce from over nine million square feet of Controlled Environment Agriculture (CEA) greenhouses in Canada and the U.S., as well as from partner greenhouses in Canada and Mexico.
• Trulieve Cannabis Corp.: Trulieve Cannabis is a holding company that, through its subsidiaries, engages in the cultivation, possession, sale, and distribution of medical cannabis. Its products are designed to alleviate seizures, muscle spasms, pain, nausea, loss of appetite, and other symptoms associated with serious medical conditions such as cancer. The company operates 83 stores across the U.S., 78 of which are located in Florida, where it serves more than 450,000 patients. Trulieve recently announced that is has agreed to acquire Mountaineer Holding LLC, providing Trulieve with an additional cultivation permit and two additional dispensary permits. Trulieve agreed to acquire Mountaineer for an upfront payment of $6 million. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2021.

These are the top marijuana stocks as ranked by a growth model that scores companies based on a 50/50 weighting of their most recent quarterly year-over-year (YOY) percentage revenue growth and their most recent quarterly YOY earnings-per-share (EPS) growth. Both sales and earnings are critical factors in the success of a company. Therefore ranking companies by only one growth metric makes a ranking susceptible to the accounting anomalies of that quarter (such as changes in tax law or restructuring costs) that may make one or the other figure unrepresentative of the business in general. Companies with quarterly EPS or revenue growth of over 2,500% were excluded as outliers.

Source: YCharts

• Cara Therapeutics Inc.: Cara Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies primarily for the treatment of pruritus, a skin condition causing severe itchiness. The company owns several patents, one of which has claims to certain cannabinoid compounds. Cara Therapeutics has a number of drugs under development that are in various stages of clinical trials. The company’s EPS growth is not recorded in the table above because its earnings changed from negative in Q4 2019 to positive in Q4 2020, its most recent reported quarter and which ended December 31, 2020.
• GrowGeneration Corp.: GrowGeneration is a distributor of agricultural products. The company operates retail hydroponic and organic specialty gardening retail outlets. It offers thousands of products, including plant nutrition, farming soils, advanced lighting technology, hydroponic and aquaponic equipment, and more. As one of the largest hydroponics suppliers in the country it owns and operates 52 retail and distribution centers. GrowGeneration recently announced the appointment of Jeffrey Lasher to the role of chief financial officer (CFO), effective April 15, 2021. Mr. Lasher has previously served as CFO at several other companies, including West Marine Inc. and Crocs Inc. (CROX).
• NIC Inc.: See above for company description.
• Jushi Holdings Inc.: Jushi Holdings is a holding company focused on building a portfolio of branded cannabis and hemp-based assets. The company is engaged in retail, distribution, cultivation, and processing operations. Its brands include: The Bank, focused on plant genetics and cultivation; The Lab, specializing in vape products and concentrates; Nira, maker of hemp-based CBD products that are physician formulated; Nira+, producer of medicinal THC products; Seche, offering various branded ground and flower cannabis products; and Tasteology, a provider of THC-infused products. Jushi’s EPS growth is not recorded in the table above because its earnings changed from positive in Q3 2019 to negative in Q3 2020, its most recent reported quarter and which ended September 30, 2020.
• Cresco Labs Inc.: Cresco Labs is a consumer-packaged cannabis products company involved in growing, manufacturing, and distribution. The company operates in nine states, owns production facilities and dispensaries, and holds 29 retail licenses. Its brands include Cresco, Reserve, Remedi, Mindy’s, Good News, High Supply, Wonder Wellness Co., and FloraCal Farms. Cresco’s EPS growth is not recorded in the table above because its earnings changed from negative in Q3 2019 to positive in Q3 2020, its most recent reported quarter as of March 24, 2021 and which ended September 30, 2020. The company recently announced that it has agreed to acquire Cultivate Licensing LLC and BL Real Estate LLC (collectively known as Cultivate), a Massachusetts-based vertically integrated operator, for upfront consideration of $90 million and an earnout of up to $68 million. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2021.

Momentum investing is a factor-based investing strategy in which you invest in a stock whose price has risen faster than the market as a whole. Momentum investors believe that stocks which have outperformed the market will often continue to do so, because the factors that caused them to outperform will not suddenly disappear. In addition, other investors, seeking to benefit from the stock’s outperformance, will often purchase the stock, further bidding its price higher and pushing the stock higher still. These are the stocks that had the highest total return over the last 12 months.

Source: YCharts

• GrowGeneration Corp.: See above for company description.
• Amyris Inc.: Amyris produces and distributes products that serve markets for specialty and performance chemicals, flavors and fragrances, cosmetics ingredients, pharmaceuticals, and nutraceuticals. The company is also working on developing and producing cannabinoid products. Amyris announced in the second half of February positive pre-clinical results for its RNA COVID-19 vaccine platform. The company announced in October 2020 that it had entered into a collaboration agreement and exclusive license with the Infectious Disease Research Institute to advance a novel RNA vaccine platform and develop a COVID-19 vaccine.
• Jushi Holdings Inc.: See above for company description.
• Aphria Inc.: Aphria is a Canada-based licensed producer of medical cannabis products. Its medical cannabis is 100% greenhouse grown, allowing its plants to benefit from natural sunlight. The company’s products include oils, softgels, oral sprays, and cartridges. Aphria has scheduled a special meeting of shareholders on April 14, 2021 to approve a previously announced business combination with Tilray. Tilray is scheduled to hold its own special meeting of stockholders on April 16, 2021 to approve the merger. The agreement to combine the two companies was announced in December. The combined company would operate under the Tilray name and would be worth approximately $3.9 billion, based on the companies’ share prices on December 15, 2020. The merger agreement is expected to close during the second quarter of 2021.
• TerrAscend Corp.: TerrAscend is a Canada-based integrated cannabis company offering a range of products, brands, and services for the global medical- and adult-use cannabis markets. Its portfolio of businesses include: The Apothecarium, a cannabis dispensary; Arise Bioscience Inc., a manufacturer and distributor of hemp-derived products; Ilera Healthcare, a medical marijuana cultivator, processor, and dispenser; Valhalla Confections, a manufacturer of cannabis-infused edibles; and more. TerrAscend recently announced that Jason Ackerman was stepping down from his roles as chief executive officer (CEO) and executive chairman, effective March 23, 2021. Jason Wild, the company’s chairman, assumed the executive chairman position. Wild said that differences over management style and culture led the board to decide to part ways with Ackerman. TerrAscend is looking for a new CEO.

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