Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Comes a Time -
Cat Stevens - Katmandu -
Xena, Thanks. With LWLG, it sounds like their science is cutting edge, but not having a background in this area (zip), I'd mainly have to go by the stock chart (which looks vulnerable), and the lack of revenues, etc. I try to follow Buffett's advice to stay within one's 'circle of competency', which unfortunately doesn't include advanced photonics. On the other hand, positive news flow could override the bearish chart, which is what Wall St is likely waiting for --> more deals to confirm the first one from last year. The chart suggests that investors are tiring from the wait, so I'd say watch that $4 support area closely.
With these tech stocks there's always the risk of being 'blinded by the science', which is common among tech oriented investors. It's easy get mesmerized by cool science, but dangerous since so few people have the specialized background to analyze the stocks. I sure don't, but a nice 10 year stock chart I can understand, so that's what I mainly stick to :o)
---
Xena, Thanks. With LWLG, it sounds like their science is cutting edge, but not having a background in this area (zip), I'd mainly have to go by the stock chart (which looks vulnerable), and the lack of revenues, etc. I try to follow Buffett's advice to stay within one's 'circle of competency', which unfortunately doesn't include advanced photonics. On the other hand, positive news flow could override the bearish chart, which is what Wall St is likely waiting for --> more deals to confirm the first one from last year. The chart suggests that investors are tiring from the wait, so I'd say watch that $4 support area closely.
With these tech stocks there's always the risk of being 'blinded by the science', which is common among tech oriented investors. It's easy get mesmerized by cool science, but dangerous since so few people have the specialized background to analyze the stocks. I sure don't, but a nice 10 year stock chart I can understand, so that's what I mainly stick to :o)
---
Derf, I picked up two small contrarian positions - IIPR and HITI, both in the cannabis related sector. Looks like the bottom is likely in for the sector, though will take some patience. IIPR is a relatively conservative vehicle - a REIT that leases space to the cannabis growers. With the sector down so much, the dividend is way up to 7%. I owned it several years ago during the pot sector bull market, so decided to get back in with a tiny amount - only $310, but figure the overall sector has finally formed a bottom (famous last words, lol) :o)
Also, the Canadian cannabis retailer - High Tide (HITI). They have 167 stores in Canada and are expanding fast, with the goal of 300 stores. The chart setups for IIPR and HITI look promising, having formed quasi inverse head + shoulders. But tiny positions - just over $300 each, so mainly for fun.
Clean energy is another one of those trendy sectors that were on fire in the 2020-21 bull market, but then the air came out. I'm still not sure those have bottomed, but might soon be time to nibble a little. So far I only have some NEE, but am watching the solar stocks (FSLR, ENPH). I figure getting back over the 200 MAs would be a good sign that the bottom is truly behind them. Until then they still look iffy, especially looking at the broader ETFs (ICLN, QCLN, TAN). That was a great sector during the 2020-21 Covid crash recovery period, but still meandering and in search of a bottom.
---
HITI -- quasi Inverted Head + Shoulders bottom -
>>> High Tide Inc. (HITI) engages in the cannabis retail business in Canada, the United States, and internationally. The company operates through Retail and Wholesale segments. It operates licensed retail cannabis stores; and provides data analytics services. In addition, the company manufactures and distributes consumption accessories. Further, it sells its products through online sales via e-commerce platform. The company offers its products under the Daily High Club, DankStop, FABCBD, GC, Nuleaf, Smoke Cartel, and Blessed CBD brands. The company was formerly known as High Tide Ventures Inc. and changed its name to High Tide Inc. in October 2018. High Tide Inc. was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. <<<
---
IIPR --> Inverted Head + Shoulders -
>>> Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (IIPR) is a self-advised Maryland corporation focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of specialized properties leased to experienced, state-licensed operators for their regulated cannabis facilities. Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, commencing with the year ended December 31, 2017. <<<
---
>>> High Tide to Open Fourth Canna Cabana in Mississauga, Ontario
CNW Group
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/high-tide-open-fourth-canna-100000631.html
CALGARY, AB, March 26, 2024 /CNW/ - High Tide Inc. ("High Tide" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: HITI) (TSXV: HITI) (FSE: 2LYA), the high-impact, retail-forward enterprise built to deliver real-world value across every component of cannabis, announced today that its Canna Cabana retail cannabis store located at 925 Rathburn Rd East, Mississauga, Ontario will begin selling recreational cannabis products and consumption accessories for adult use on Thursday, March 28. This opening will mark High Tide's 167th Canna Cabana branded cannabis retail location in Canada, the 58th in the province of Ontario and the 4th in Mississauga.
This brand-new Canna Cabana is nestled within a major retail power center and is surrounded by strong anchor tenants, including a national grocery retailer, Canada's largest bulk-food retailer, and several quick-serve restaurants. Situated close to well-travelled roadways, this Canna Cabana will benefit from the many residents who come through this plaza to run their daily errands and will welcome new and existing ELITE and Cabana Club members.
"I am thrilled to announce another Canna Cabana opening in Mississauga in rapid succession. This Tomken store is another example of our thoughtful real estate strategy, where we strategically locate our stores in these retail power centers surrounded by major national anchor tenants. The coming months are brimming with more exciting Canna Cabana store openings as we look to continue our growth trajectory in Mississauga and beyond, eventually reaching 300 stores across Canada and our long-term objective to achieve 15% market share in the provinces where we operate," said Raj Grover, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of High Tide.
"Growth and innovation are in our DNA. Our Cabana Club is the first-of-its-kind discount club model in North America, which features ELITE as our paid membership tier. ELITE upgrades have been growing at their fastest pace to date, with Canna Cabana quickly becoming a household name in Canada. Our goal is to extend the reach of our Cabana Club into a global cannabis community by consolidating our 5 million plus international customers and bringing them all together into our rapidly growing membership base," added Mr. Grover.
ABOUT HIGH TIDE
High Tide, Inc. is the leading community-grown, retail-forward cannabis enterprise engineered to unleash the full value of the world's most powerful plant and is the second-largest cannabis retailer in North America by store count1. High Tide (HITI) is uniquely-built around the cannabis consumer, with wholly-diversified and fully-integrated operations across all components of cannabis, including:
Bricks & Mortar Retail: Canna Cabana™ is the largest non-franchised cannabis retail chain in Canada, with 167 current locations spanning British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario and growing. In 2021, Canna Cabana became the first cannabis discount club retailer in North America.
Retail Innovation: Fastendr™ is a unique and fully automated technology that integrates retail kiosks and smart lockers to facilitate a better buying experience through browsing, ordering and pickup.
E-commerce Platforms: High Tide operates a suite of leading accessory sites across the world, including Grasscity.com, Smokecartel.com, Dailyhighclub.com, and Dankstop.com.
CBD: High Tide continues to cultivate the possibilities of consumer CBD through Nuleafnaturals.com, FABCBD.com, blessedcbd.de and blessedcbd.co.uk.
Wholesale Distribution: High Tide keeps that cannabis category stocked with wholesale solutions via Valiant™.
Licensing: High Tide continues to push cannabis culture forward through fresh partnerships and license agreements under the Famous Brandz™ name.
________________________________
1 As reported by ATB Capital Markets based on store counts as of February 8, 2024
High Tide consistently moves ahead of the currents, having been named one of Canada's Top Growing Companies in 2021, 2022 and 2023 by the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Magazine, and was named as one of the top 10 performing diversified industries stocks in both the 2022 and 2024 TSX Venture 50. High Tide was also ranked number one in the retail category on the Financial Times list of Americas' Fastest Growing Companies for 2023.
<<<
---
>>> High Tide to Open Fourth Canna Cabana in Mississauga, Ontario
CNW Group
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/high-tide-open-fourth-canna-100000631.html
CALGARY, AB, March 26, 2024 /CNW/ - High Tide Inc. ("High Tide" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: HITI) (TSXV: HITI) (FSE: 2LYA), the high-impact, retail-forward enterprise built to deliver real-world value across every component of cannabis, announced today that its Canna Cabana retail cannabis store located at 925 Rathburn Rd East, Mississauga, Ontario will begin selling recreational cannabis products and consumption accessories for adult use on Thursday, March 28. This opening will mark High Tide's 167th Canna Cabana branded cannabis retail location in Canada, the 58th in the province of Ontario and the 4th in Mississauga.
This brand-new Canna Cabana is nestled within a major retail power center and is surrounded by strong anchor tenants, including a national grocery retailer, Canada's largest bulk-food retailer, and several quick-serve restaurants. Situated close to well-travelled roadways, this Canna Cabana will benefit from the many residents who come through this plaza to run their daily errands and will welcome new and existing ELITE and Cabana Club members.
"I am thrilled to announce another Canna Cabana opening in Mississauga in rapid succession. This Tomken store is another example of our thoughtful real estate strategy, where we strategically locate our stores in these retail power centers surrounded by major national anchor tenants. The coming months are brimming with more exciting Canna Cabana store openings as we look to continue our growth trajectory in Mississauga and beyond, eventually reaching 300 stores across Canada and our long-term objective to achieve 15% market share in the provinces where we operate," said Raj Grover, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of High Tide.
"Growth and innovation are in our DNA. Our Cabana Club is the first-of-its-kind discount club model in North America, which features ELITE as our paid membership tier. ELITE upgrades have been growing at their fastest pace to date, with Canna Cabana quickly becoming a household name in Canada. Our goal is to extend the reach of our Cabana Club into a global cannabis community by consolidating our 5 million plus international customers and bringing them all together into our rapidly growing membership base," added Mr. Grover.
ABOUT HIGH TIDE
High Tide, Inc. is the leading community-grown, retail-forward cannabis enterprise engineered to unleash the full value of the world's most powerful plant and is the second-largest cannabis retailer in North America by store count1. High Tide (HITI) is uniquely-built around the cannabis consumer, with wholly-diversified and fully-integrated operations across all components of cannabis, including:
Bricks & Mortar Retail: Canna Cabana™ is the largest non-franchised cannabis retail chain in Canada, with 167 current locations spanning British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario and growing. In 2021, Canna Cabana became the first cannabis discount club retailer in North America.
Retail Innovation: Fastendr™ is a unique and fully automated technology that integrates retail kiosks and smart lockers to facilitate a better buying experience through browsing, ordering and pickup.
E-commerce Platforms: High Tide operates a suite of leading accessory sites across the world, including Grasscity.com, Smokecartel.com, Dailyhighclub.com, and Dankstop.com.
CBD: High Tide continues to cultivate the possibilities of consumer CBD through Nuleafnaturals.com, FABCBD.com, blessedcbd.de and blessedcbd.co.uk.
Wholesale Distribution: High Tide keeps that cannabis category stocked with wholesale solutions via Valiant™.
Licensing: High Tide continues to push cannabis culture forward through fresh partnerships and license agreements under the Famous Brandz™ name.
________________________________
1 As reported by ATB Capital Markets based on store counts as of February 8, 2024
High Tide consistently moves ahead of the currents, having been named one of Canada's Top Growing Companies in 2021, 2022 and 2023 by the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Magazine, and was named as one of the top 10 performing diversified industries stocks in both the 2022 and 2024 TSX Venture 50. High Tide was also ranked number one in the retail category on the Financial Times list of Americas' Fastest Growing Companies for 2023.
<<<
---
>>> High Tide to Open Fourth Canna Cabana in Mississauga, Ontario
CNW Group
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/high-tide-open-fourth-canna-100000631.html
CALGARY, AB, March 26, 2024 /CNW/ - High Tide Inc. ("High Tide" or the "Company") (Nasdaq: HITI) (TSXV: HITI) (FSE: 2LYA), the high-impact, retail-forward enterprise built to deliver real-world value across every component of cannabis, announced today that its Canna Cabana retail cannabis store located at 925 Rathburn Rd East, Mississauga, Ontario will begin selling recreational cannabis products and consumption accessories for adult use on Thursday, March 28. This opening will mark High Tide's 167th Canna Cabana branded cannabis retail location in Canada, the 58th in the province of Ontario and the 4th in Mississauga.
This brand-new Canna Cabana is nestled within a major retail power center and is surrounded by strong anchor tenants, including a national grocery retailer, Canada's largest bulk-food retailer, and several quick-serve restaurants. Situated close to well-travelled roadways, this Canna Cabana will benefit from the many residents who come through this plaza to run their daily errands and will welcome new and existing ELITE and Cabana Club members.
"I am thrilled to announce another Canna Cabana opening in Mississauga in rapid succession. This Tomken store is another example of our thoughtful real estate strategy, where we strategically locate our stores in these retail power centers surrounded by major national anchor tenants. The coming months are brimming with more exciting Canna Cabana store openings as we look to continue our growth trajectory in Mississauga and beyond, eventually reaching 300 stores across Canada and our long-term objective to achieve 15% market share in the provinces where we operate," said Raj Grover, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of High Tide.
"Growth and innovation are in our DNA. Our Cabana Club is the first-of-its-kind discount club model in North America, which features ELITE as our paid membership tier. ELITE upgrades have been growing at their fastest pace to date, with Canna Cabana quickly becoming a household name in Canada. Our goal is to extend the reach of our Cabana Club into a global cannabis community by consolidating our 5 million plus international customers and bringing them all together into our rapidly growing membership base," added Mr. Grover.
ABOUT HIGH TIDE
High Tide, Inc. is the leading community-grown, retail-forward cannabis enterprise engineered to unleash the full value of the world's most powerful plant and is the second-largest cannabis retailer in North America by store count1. High Tide (HITI) is uniquely-built around the cannabis consumer, with wholly-diversified and fully-integrated operations across all components of cannabis, including:
Bricks & Mortar Retail: Canna Cabana™ is the largest non-franchised cannabis retail chain in Canada, with 167 current locations spanning British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario and growing. In 2021, Canna Cabana became the first cannabis discount club retailer in North America.
Retail Innovation: Fastendr™ is a unique and fully automated technology that integrates retail kiosks and smart lockers to facilitate a better buying experience through browsing, ordering and pickup.
E-commerce Platforms: High Tide operates a suite of leading accessory sites across the world, including Grasscity.com, Smokecartel.com, Dailyhighclub.com, and Dankstop.com.
CBD: High Tide continues to cultivate the possibilities of consumer CBD through Nuleafnaturals.com, FABCBD.com, blessedcbd.de and blessedcbd.co.uk.
Wholesale Distribution: High Tide keeps that cannabis category stocked with wholesale solutions via Valiant™.
Licensing: High Tide continues to push cannabis culture forward through fresh partnerships and license agreements under the Famous Brandz™ name.
________________________________
1 As reported by ATB Capital Markets based on store counts as of February 8, 2024
High Tide consistently moves ahead of the currents, having been named one of Canada's Top Growing Companies in 2021, 2022 and 2023 by the Globe and Mail's Report on Business Magazine, and was named as one of the top 10 performing diversified industries stocks in both the 2022 and 2024 TSX Venture 50. High Tide was also ranked number one in the retail category on the Financial Times list of Americas' Fastest Growing Companies for 2023.
<<<
---
Kansas - Belexes Live 1977-78 -
>>> DJT having a good first day: Trump's Truth Social media stock price sees rapid rise
by Bailey Schulz
USA TODAY
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-trumps-truth-social-hit-134022713.html
Donald Trump's Truth Social stock price skyrocketed during its stock market debut, gaining more than 40% by early Tuesday afternoon.
The parent company of Truth Social, Trump Media & Technology Group, went public Tuesday morning under the ticker DJT, short for Donald J. Trump. The stock was trading at $71.63 as of 1:32 p.m. ET, up nearly $22.
The public listing was made possible by Trump Media's merger with Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Digital World’s shareholders voted in favor of the merger Friday, and Trump Media took Digital World's place on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.
How much is Truth Social worth?
Before trading opened Tuesday, Truth Social's parent company had a market value of about $6.8 billion. Because Trump owns about 79 million of the 135 million outstanding shares, his stake in the company was worth about $4 billion.
It’s a pricy valuation, especially for a company that has racked up tens of millions of dollars in losses since its 2021 launch and generated just over $3 million in revenue during the first nine months of 2023.
In comparison, Reddit ? a social media platform that brought in more than $800 million in revenue in 2023 ? was valued at roughly $6.4 million for its IPO last week. Its stock was trading at $70.90 as of 1:16 p.m. ET.
While it's "hard to believe" that Truth Social and Reddit are close in valuation, Trump's social media company has been bolstered by investments from loyal Trump supporters, said Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University in Virginia.
"It's hard to come up with any reasonable metrics that would get you to this valuation," Horstmeyer said.
What is Trump’s net worth?
Truth Social going public means a massive boost to Trump’s net worth, at least on paper.
Trump is not allowed to sell his shares or use them as collateral for a bond for the next six months. He would need approval from the Trump Media board to lift that restriction.
Trump has been ordered to post a $175 million bond as he appeals the full $454 million civil fraud judgment against him. He has also been ordered to pay $83.3 million after a defamation trial loss to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Why is Truth Social’s ticker DJT?
Research shows that familiar names, such as a former president’s initials, can help a company’s stock performance.
One 2006 study by Princeton University psychologists found that stocks with tickers that are easier to pronounce tend to perform better in the first few days of trading. Another study from Pomona College in 2019 verified earlier research that found clever tickers tend to perform better, partly because they are more memorable to investors.
What is Digital World Acquisition?
Digital World is a SPAC, also known as a blank check company. These publicly traded shell companies exist to acquire or merge with private companies and take them public.
Truth Social’s merger with Digital World was first announced in 2021, when the number of companies going public via SPACs surged. The investment vehicles have since faced criticism for being bad deals for retail investors.
Why did Trump launch Truth Social?
Truth Social was founded after Trump was booted from major social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
<<<
---
>>> DJT having a good first day: Trump's Truth Social media stock price sees rapid rise
by Bailey Schulz
USA TODAY
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-trumps-truth-social-hit-134022713.html
Donald Trump's Truth Social stock price skyrocketed during its stock market debut, gaining more than 40% by early Tuesday afternoon.
The parent company of Truth Social, Trump Media & Technology Group, went public Tuesday morning under the ticker DJT, short for Donald J. Trump. The stock was trading at $71.63 as of 1:32 p.m. ET, up nearly $22.
The public listing was made possible by Trump Media's merger with Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Digital World’s shareholders voted in favor of the merger Friday, and Trump Media took Digital World's place on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.
How much is Truth Social worth?
Before trading opened Tuesday, Truth Social's parent company had a market value of about $6.8 billion. Because Trump owns about 79 million of the 135 million outstanding shares, his stake in the company was worth about $4 billion.
It’s a pricy valuation, especially for a company that has racked up tens of millions of dollars in losses since its 2021 launch and generated just over $3 million in revenue during the first nine months of 2023.
In comparison, Reddit ? a social media platform that brought in more than $800 million in revenue in 2023 ? was valued at roughly $6.4 million for its IPO last week. Its stock was trading at $70.90 as of 1:16 p.m. ET.
While it's "hard to believe" that Truth Social and Reddit are close in valuation, Trump's social media company has been bolstered by investments from loyal Trump supporters, said Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University in Virginia.
"It's hard to come up with any reasonable metrics that would get you to this valuation," Horstmeyer said.
What is Trump’s net worth?
Truth Social going public means a massive boost to Trump’s net worth, at least on paper.
Trump is not allowed to sell his shares or use them as collateral for a bond for the next six months. He would need approval from the Trump Media board to lift that restriction.
Trump has been ordered to post a $175 million bond as he appeals the full $454 million civil fraud judgment against him. He has also been ordered to pay $83.3 million after a defamation trial loss to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Why is Truth Social’s ticker DJT?
Research shows that familiar names, such as a former president’s initials, can help a company’s stock performance.
One 2006 study by Princeton University psychologists found that stocks with tickers that are easier to pronounce tend to perform better in the first few days of trading. Another study from Pomona College in 2019 verified earlier research that found clever tickers tend to perform better, partly because they are more memorable to investors.
What is Digital World Acquisition?
Digital World is a SPAC, also known as a blank check company. These publicly traded shell companies exist to acquire or merge with private companies and take them public.
Truth Social’s merger with Digital World was first announced in 2021, when the number of companies going public via SPACs surged. The investment vehicles have since faced criticism for being bad deals for retail investors.
Why did Trump launch Truth Social?
Truth Social was founded after Trump was booted from major social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
<<<
---
>>> DJT having a good first day: Trump's Truth Social media stock price sees rapid rise
by Bailey Schulz
USA TODAY
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/now-trumps-truth-social-hit-134022713.html
Donald Trump's Truth Social stock price skyrocketed during its stock market debut, gaining more than 40% by early Tuesday afternoon.
The parent company of Truth Social, Trump Media & Technology Group, went public Tuesday morning under the ticker DJT, short for Donald J. Trump. The stock was trading at $71.63 as of 1:32 p.m. ET, up nearly $22.
The public listing was made possible by Trump Media's merger with Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. Digital World’s shareholders voted in favor of the merger Friday, and Trump Media took Digital World's place on the Nasdaq on Tuesday.
How much is Truth Social worth?
Before trading opened Tuesday, Truth Social's parent company had a market value of about $6.8 billion. Because Trump owns about 79 million of the 135 million outstanding shares, his stake in the company was worth about $4 billion.
It’s a pricy valuation, especially for a company that has racked up tens of millions of dollars in losses since its 2021 launch and generated just over $3 million in revenue during the first nine months of 2023.
In comparison, Reddit ? a social media platform that brought in more than $800 million in revenue in 2023 ? was valued at roughly $6.4 million for its IPO last week. Its stock was trading at $70.90 as of 1:16 p.m. ET.
While it's "hard to believe" that Truth Social and Reddit are close in valuation, Trump's social media company has been bolstered by investments from loyal Trump supporters, said Derek Horstmeyer, a finance professor at George Mason University in Virginia.
"It's hard to come up with any reasonable metrics that would get you to this valuation," Horstmeyer said.
What is Trump’s net worth?
Truth Social going public means a massive boost to Trump’s net worth, at least on paper.
Trump is not allowed to sell his shares or use them as collateral for a bond for the next six months. He would need approval from the Trump Media board to lift that restriction.
Trump has been ordered to post a $175 million bond as he appeals the full $454 million civil fraud judgment against him. He has also been ordered to pay $83.3 million after a defamation trial loss to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Why is Truth Social’s ticker DJT?
Research shows that familiar names, such as a former president’s initials, can help a company’s stock performance.
One 2006 study by Princeton University psychologists found that stocks with tickers that are easier to pronounce tend to perform better in the first few days of trading. Another study from Pomona College in 2019 verified earlier research that found clever tickers tend to perform better, partly because they are more memorable to investors.
What is Digital World Acquisition?
Digital World is a SPAC, also known as a blank check company. These publicly traded shell companies exist to acquire or merge with private companies and take them public.
Truth Social’s merger with Digital World was first announced in 2021, when the number of companies going public via SPACs surged. The investment vehicles have since faced criticism for being bad deals for retail investors.
Why did Trump launch Truth Social?
Truth Social was founded after Trump was booted from major social media platforms following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.
<<<
---
>>> Trump's Truth Social stock soars in first day of trading
Yahoo Finance
by Alexandra Canal
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-truth-social-stock-soars-in-first-day-of-trading-133705717.html
Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social (DJT) surged more than 30% in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq early Tuesday.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company, were trading above $65 under the ticker symbol "DJT," Trump's initials, around mid-morning.
The company merged with special purpose vehicle Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) in a deal approved by shareholders last week. Prior to the merger, DWAC had been on the public market since 2021.
Trump founded Truth Social after he was kicked off major social media apps like Facebook and Twitter, the platform now known as X, following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021. He has since been reinstated on the platforms.
Trump will maintain a roughly 60% stake in Truth Social, with nearly 79 million shares. That translates to a valuation of more than $5 billion based on current trading levels.
The merger comes as the former president faces a $454 million fraud penalty and grapples with a campaign fundraising shortfall as he gears up for a 2024 presidential rematch against current commander-in-chief Joe Biden.
But Trump will have to wait before cashing in his shares.
According to the terms of the merger, stakeholders are subject to a six-month lockup period before selling or transferring shares. The only exception would be if the company's board votes to make a special dispensation.
According to an SEC filing from Digital World, Trump Media lost $49 million in the first nine months of last year and brought in $3.4 million in revenue.
As Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman pointed out, short interest in DWAC stock — bets that the stock price will fall rather than rise — was about 11% of outstanding shares. To note, average short interest in public companies sits in the 3% to 4% range.
<<<
---
>>> Trump's Truth Social stock soars in first day of trading
Yahoo Finance
by Alexandra Canal
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-truth-social-stock-soars-in-first-day-of-trading-133705717.html
Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social (DJT) surged more than 30% in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq early Tuesday.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company, were trading above $65 under the ticker symbol "DJT," Trump's initials, around mid-morning.
The company merged with special purpose vehicle Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) in a deal approved by shareholders last week. Prior to the merger, DWAC had been on the public market since 2021.
Trump founded Truth Social after he was kicked off major social media apps like Facebook and Twitter, the platform now known as X, following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021. He has since been reinstated on the platforms.
Trump will maintain a roughly 60% stake in Truth Social, with nearly 79 million shares. That translates to a valuation of more than $5 billion based on current trading levels.
The merger comes as the former president faces a $454 million fraud penalty and grapples with a campaign fundraising shortfall as he gears up for a 2024 presidential rematch against current commander-in-chief Joe Biden.
But Trump will have to wait before cashing in his shares.
According to the terms of the merger, stakeholders are subject to a six-month lockup period before selling or transferring shares. The only exception would be if the company's board votes to make a special dispensation.
According to an SEC filing from Digital World, Trump Media lost $49 million in the first nine months of last year and brought in $3.4 million in revenue.
As Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman pointed out, short interest in DWAC stock — bets that the stock price will fall rather than rise — was about 11% of outstanding shares. To note, average short interest in public companies sits in the 3% to 4% range.
<<<
---
>>> Trump's Truth Social stock soars in first day of trading
Yahoo Finance
by Alexandra Canal
March 26, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trumps-truth-social-stock-soars-in-first-day-of-trading-133705717.html
Donald Trump's social media platform Truth Social (DJT) surged more than 30% in its first day of trading on the Nasdaq early Tuesday.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, Truth Social's parent company, were trading above $65 under the ticker symbol "DJT," Trump's initials, around mid-morning.
The company merged with special purpose vehicle Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC) in a deal approved by shareholders last week. Prior to the merger, DWAC had been on the public market since 2021.
Trump founded Truth Social after he was kicked off major social media apps like Facebook and Twitter, the platform now known as X, following the Jan. 6 Capitol riots in 2021. He has since been reinstated on the platforms.
Trump will maintain a roughly 60% stake in Truth Social, with nearly 79 million shares. That translates to a valuation of more than $5 billion based on current trading levels.
The merger comes as the former president faces a $454 million fraud penalty and grapples with a campaign fundraising shortfall as he gears up for a 2024 presidential rematch against current commander-in-chief Joe Biden.
But Trump will have to wait before cashing in his shares.
According to the terms of the merger, stakeholders are subject to a six-month lockup period before selling or transferring shares. The only exception would be if the company's board votes to make a special dispensation.
According to an SEC filing from Digital World, Trump Media lost $49 million in the first nine months of last year and brought in $3.4 million in revenue.
As Yahoo Finance's Rick Newman pointed out, short interest in DWAC stock — bets that the stock price will fall rather than rise — was about 11% of outstanding shares. To note, average short interest in public companies sits in the 3% to 4% range.
<<<
---
Goldman likes gold - >>> Gold’s 'record march higher set to continue,' Goldman says
Yahoo Finance
Ines Ferré
March 25, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/golds-record-march-higher-set-to-continue-goldman-says-164325765.html
Gold’s roughly 8% month-to-date rally has room to grow with the precious metal poised to hit $2,300 an ounce by year-end, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.
On Monday futures gained to trade as high as $2,182 an ounce. The precious metal is considered a safe haven during times of geopolitical tensions and when interest rates decrease. Last week, the Federal Reserve continued to signal that it would lower interest rates three times this year.
The Fed meeting “reinforced the market’s (and ours) expectations that three cuts are likely this year, lending renewed support to gold to test and surpass March’s earlier record high,” wrote a team of analysts led by Samantha Dart.
Goldman Sachs analysts upgraded their average gold price forecast for 2024 from $2,090 to $2,180 per ounce, targeting a move to $2,300 by the end of the year.
The analysts forecast gold prices in the near term will move toward another consolidation phase, barring any geopolitical surprise. However, “a substantive retracement lower will likely also be limited by resilience in physical buying channels,” wrote Dart, citing Chinese imports of the precious metal.
“Nonetheless, in the midterm we continue to hold a constructive view on gold underpinned by eventual Fed easing, which should crucially reactivate the largely dormant ETF buying,” wrote Dart.
Bullion's price increases have been disconnected from recent outflows seen in gold-related ETFs. Strategists believe investors have been rotating money into bitcoin ETFs as the token roared toward new highs earlier this month.
Central banks have been buying up gold at historic levels, helping to drive up demand over the past couple of years.
Adjusted for inflation, gold hit a record in 1980 when it hit $850 per ounce, which would equal almost $3,200 in today's dollars.
<<<
---
Goldman likes gold - >>> Gold’s 'record march higher set to continue,' Goldman says
Yahoo Finance
Ines Ferré
March 25, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/golds-record-march-higher-set-to-continue-goldman-says-164325765.html
Gold’s roughly 8% month-to-date rally has room to grow with the precious metal poised to hit $2,300 an ounce by year-end, according to Goldman Sachs analysts.
On Monday futures gained to trade as high as $2,182 an ounce. The precious metal is considered a safe haven during times of geopolitical tensions and when interest rates decrease. Last week, the Federal Reserve continued to signal that it would lower interest rates three times this year.
The Fed meeting “reinforced the market’s (and ours) expectations that three cuts are likely this year, lending renewed support to gold to test and surpass March’s earlier record high,” wrote a team of analysts led by Samantha Dart.
Goldman Sachs analysts upgraded their average gold price forecast for 2024 from $2,090 to $2,180 per ounce, targeting a move to $2,300 by the end of the year.
The analysts forecast gold prices in the near term will move toward another consolidation phase, barring any geopolitical surprise. However, “a substantive retracement lower will likely also be limited by resilience in physical buying channels,” wrote Dart, citing Chinese imports of the precious metal.
“Nonetheless, in the midterm we continue to hold a constructive view on gold underpinned by eventual Fed easing, which should crucially reactivate the largely dormant ETF buying,” wrote Dart.
Bullion's price increases have been disconnected from recent outflows seen in gold-related ETFs. Strategists believe investors have been rotating money into bitcoin ETFs as the token roared toward new highs earlier this month.
Central banks have been buying up gold at historic levels, helping to drive up demand over the past couple of years.
Adjusted for inflation, gold hit a record in 1980 when it hit $850 per ounce, which would equal almost $3,200 in today's dollars.
<<<
---
Bigworld, Btw, it looks like that DWAC transition has occurred, and DJT is having a good market reception so far. The Donald stands to get a huge payday, so we'll see what happens. He'll need that money for all the lawsuit related stuff. I think there's a 6 month lock up period on his shares, though there may be a workaround to allow an earlier cash out.
Things were already bizarre, but these Trump years have been like a never ending Twilight Zone episode. And the ongoing legalization of pot and psychedelics will help put the public into an even deeper stupor. A long strange trip it's been..
---
Bigworld, Thanks for that Kunstler update. Victoria Nuland is out (hooray), so perhaps sanity has prevailed. But not so fast -> the Europeans are now sending troops into Ukraine, yikes. So a very grim development, as we bungle ever closer to WW 3. Between Ukraine and the M. East, it's hard to imagine this ending well.
The 'official' US administration is now trying to back away from these disasters, but as in The Godfather --> 'someone keeps pulling me back in'. That 'someone' won't be satisfied until the 'US bombs Iran' scenario occurs, but it could be much worse than that, and WW 3 may be the goal. Hard to believe, but this is what you get when enough incompetent and/or insane leaders take over.
>>> Meanwhile, Polish, French, and German regular army troops have moved directly by rail and air inside Ukraine to Cherkassy, south of Kiev. The mental defectives running Poland, France, and Germany seem avid for NATO to jump with both feet into ground action in Ukraine, that is, go directly to war with Russia. <<<
Inbred leaders --> insanity
>>> Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-superstar-stocks-supercharge-dividend-203000230.html
In 2023, Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR) paid a $7.22 dividend per share, following constant increases for six years, and the company’s forward dividend yield stands at 7.5%. The Board’s planned dividend payout range of 75% to 85% of adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) was met by the company’s most recent quarterly dividend of $1.82 per share in Q4 2023.
Furthermore, a dividend payout ratio within the intended range suggests sustained growth potential and careful money management. Innovative Industrial Properties has a flexible and cautious balance sheet with a debt-to-total gross assets ratio of 12% and no variable-rate debt. The company’s overall liquidity at the end of Q4 2023 was over $175 million. This includes cash and short-term investments as well as availability under its revolving credit facility.
Moreover, Innovative Industrial Properties pledged up to $119.5 million in 2023 for upgrades to infrastructure, new leases, lease revisions, and property purchases. Overall, the company has a proactive attitude towards growing its property portfolio. Therefore, this facilitates the expansion of its tenant partners, as evidenced by its substantial capital commitments and investment activities.
<<<
>>> Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (IIPR) is a self-advised Maryland corporation focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of specialized properties leased to experienced, state-licensed operators for their regulated cannabis facilities. Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, commencing with the year ended December 31, 2017. <<<
---
>>> Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-superstar-stocks-supercharge-dividend-203000230.html
In 2023, Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR) paid a $7.22 dividend per share, following constant increases for six years, and the company’s forward dividend yield stands at 7.5%. The Board’s planned dividend payout range of 75% to 85% of adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) was met by the company’s most recent quarterly dividend of $1.82 per share in Q4 2023.
Furthermore, a dividend payout ratio within the intended range suggests sustained growth potential and careful money management. Innovative Industrial Properties has a flexible and cautious balance sheet with a debt-to-total gross assets ratio of 12% and no variable-rate debt. The company’s overall liquidity at the end of Q4 2023 was over $175 million. This includes cash and short-term investments as well as availability under its revolving credit facility.
Moreover, Innovative Industrial Properties pledged up to $119.5 million in 2023 for upgrades to infrastructure, new leases, lease revisions, and property purchases. Overall, the company has a proactive attitude towards growing its property portfolio. Therefore, this facilitates the expansion of its tenant partners, as evidenced by its substantial capital commitments and investment activities.
<<<
>>> Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. (IIPR) is a self-advised Maryland corporation focused on the acquisition, ownership and management of specialized properties leased to experienced, state-licensed operators for their regulated cannabis facilities. Innovative Industrial Properties, Inc. has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust, commencing with the year ended December 31, 2017. <<<
---
>>> Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/7-superstar-stocks-supercharge-dividend-203000230.html
In 2023, Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR) paid a $7.22 dividend per share, following constant increases for six years, and the company’s forward dividend yield stands at 7.5%. The Board’s planned dividend payout range of 75% to 85% of adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) was met by the company’s most recent quarterly dividend of $1.82 per share in Q4 2023.
Furthermore, a dividend payout ratio within the intended range suggests sustained growth potential and careful money management. Innovative Industrial Properties has a flexible and cautious balance sheet with a debt-to-total gross assets ratio of 12% and no variable-rate debt. The company’s overall liquidity at the end of Q4 2023 was over $175 million. This includes cash and short-term investments as well as availability under its revolving credit facility.
Moreover, Innovative Industrial Properties pledged up to $119.5 million in 2023 for upgrades to infrastructure, new leases, lease revisions, and property purchases. Overall, the company has a proactive attitude towards growing its property portfolio. Therefore, this facilitates the expansion of its tenant partners, as evidenced by its substantial capital commitments and investment activities.
<<<
---
>>> The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/12-best-farmland-agriculture-stocks-140403079.html
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 30
The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) is an Ohio-based company that serves the agricultural industry through products, like organic products for gardeners, pesticides, hydroponic nutrients, and more. The company sells its products under various brands, including EZ Seed, Miracle-Gro Organic Choice, etc. The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) has a market capitalization of $4.103 billion as of March 21.
On March 20, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company’s (NYSE:SMG) subsidiary, Hawthorne Gardening Company, announced that it entered into a strategic partnership with BFG Supply, under which the company’s proprietary Signature brand cultivation supplies and solutions will be distributed by BFG.
As of the fourth quarter of 2023, 30 hedge funds have a stake worth $169.391 million in The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG). Schonfeld Strategic Advisors has increased its stake by 42% in the company in Q4, 2023, to 444,336 shares worth $28.326 million, making the firm the largest shareholder of the company.
Madison Funds made the following comment about The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) in its Q4 2022 investor letter:
“Stock selection was the poorest for us in this sector. Two stocks in particular – Hain Celestial (HAIN) and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) – while big winners for us in 2020 and 2021, hurt the portfolio in 2022.
While both companies were so-called COVID beneficiaries (businesses that benefited from consumers staying home and spending on their homes during COVID), we felt they possessed certain additional drivers that would maintain their fundamentals into 2022 and beyond.
Scott’s Miracle-Gro is arguably one of the great American franchises. The brand is synonymous with lawn care and pest control, has a dominant market share (~60%) with historically-impressive ~30% cash flow margins, and has the country’s largest Cannabis supply business. Scotts’ core business saw a significant windfall during COVID lockdowns. Lawn and garden care is not a growth business, and SMG dominance does not allow for much incremental gain in market share. However, our thesis was that even in a reopening scenario where lawn and garden businesses would revert to the mean, the cannabis market was poised for years of growth as more states legalized recreational use.
What we missed was the highly inefficient structure of the U.S. cannabis market. Currently, California, Colorado, and Michigan have the biggest and most mature markets. However, over the course of the last few years, several very large states and regions have voted to legalize recreational use, including New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The fly in the ointment has been Oklahoma, which is a medical marijuana state. Although recreational use is still prohibited, licenses to grow the crop were granted in Laissez Faire fashion to anyone willing to buy one. Oklahoma began to grow and cultivate the crop far in excess of their medical marijuana demand. That excess supply bled into grey markets across the country, devastating pricing for growers in other states. This glut put a near complete stop to capital spending on grow operations. With no new or incremental facilities coming on, Scotts’ Hawthorne business was cut in half from its peak in F21. This, of course, had a devastating effect on the stock.”
<<<
---
>>> Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (REGN) discovers, invents, develops, manufactures, and commercializes medicines for treating various diseases worldwide. The company's products include EYLEA injection to treat wet age-related macular degeneration and diabetic macular edema; myopic choroidal neovascularization; diabetic retinopathy; neovascular glaucoma; and retinopathy of prematurity. It also provides Dupixent injection to treat atopic dermatitis and asthma in adults and pediatrics; Libtayo injection to treat metastatic or locally advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma; Praluent injection for heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia or clinical atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease in adults; REGEN-COV for covid-19; and Kevzara solution for treating rheumatoid arthritis in adults. In addition, the company offers Inmazeb injection for infection caused by Zaire ebolavirus; ARCALYST injection for cryopyrin-associated periodic syndromes, including familial cold auto-inflammatory syndrome and muckle-wells syndrome; and ZALTRAP injection for intravenous infusion to treat metastatic colorectal cancer; and develops product candidates for treating patients with eye, allergic and inflammatory, cardiovascular and metabolic, infectious, and rare diseases; and cancer, pain, and hematologic conditions. The company was incorporated in 1988 and is headquartered in Tarrytown, New York.
<<<
---
>>> FDA rejects Regeneron lymphoma drug, setting back company’s oncology push
Industry Dive
by Jonathan Gardner
March 25, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fda-rejects-regeneron-lymphoma-drug-115500198.html
The Food and Drug Administration declined to approve an experimental lymphoma drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, asking the company to first make more progress with a trial meant to confirm benefits observed in earlier testing, the company said Monday.
Regeneron said the FDA “did not identify any approvability issues” related to the safety, effectiveness or manufacturing of the drug, which is known as odronextamab. However, the agency wants to see study participants enrolled in the “dose finding” as well as “confirmatory” parts of an ongoing Phase 3 trial before it will issue a verdict, the company said.
Should it ultimately win approval, odronextamab would compete for market share with similar, “bispecific” drugs from AbbVie and Roche. Those drugs were greenlit in 2023 and posted sales of $17 million and $65 million, respectively.
Dive Insight:
Since cracking down on “dangling” accelerated approvals for cancer drugs – conditional clearances that weren’t confirmed through further testing – the FDA has been more hesitant to grant new ones. In Regeneron’s case, the drugmaker has been seeking a speedy approval in two types of lymphoma based on studies that measured remission rates but didn’t compare odronextamab’s performance to a placebo.
Accelerated approvals are conditional and granted on smaller trials that are “likely” to predict a benefit for drug recipients. But companies seeking them must back them up with bigger studies that prove those benefits by testing their therapies against a placebo or existing treatment.
Regeneron has already begun such a trial. However, the agency doesn’t believe Regeneron has made enough progress with enrollment yet, prompting a rejection. The FDA must also sign off on the timelines for the study’s completion before Regeneron resubmits its application. Regeneron will share updates later this year, it said in a statement.
Odronextamab is a type of dual-pronged antibody drug that’s become increasingly popular in recent years. It binds to the same targets on immune and malignant cells as AbbVie’s Epkinly and Roche’s Columvi, both of which won accelerated approvals in B cell lymphomas.
In a research note Monday, Sean McCutcheon, an analyst with Raymond James, wrote that he expects an agreement between Regeneron and the FDA once the “confirmatory” portions of the study begin. Still, the setback represents a missed opportunity for Regeneron, which has struggled to compete with more established players in oncology.
“We continue to see odronextamab as a modest opportunity given competitive headwinds, with the delay as a further hurdle to garnering market share,” he wrote. “The [rejection] also further adds to investor pessimism on the company’s execution within oncology.”
<<<
---
>>> Berkshire Hathaway Energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway_Energy
Company type Subsidiary
Predecessor MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company
Headquarters Des Moines, Iowa
Key people
Greg Abel (Chairman)
William J. Fehrman (CEO & President)
Revenue Increase $25.15 billion (2021)[1]
Operating income Increase $4.25 billion (2012)[2]
Net income Increase $2.57 billion (2012)[2]
Owner Berkshire Hathaway (92%)
Walter Scott Jr. family (8%)
Parent Berkshire Hathaway
Website www.brkenergy.com
Berkshire Hathaway Energy (previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company until 2014) is a holding company and subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 92% of the company. Berkshire has owned a controlling stake since 1999.[3] The company also controls power distribution companies in the United Kingdom and Canada.[4] The remaining 8% is owned by the family of Walter Scott Jr.[5]
Greg Abel serves as chairman. Scott W. Thon is president and CEO. David L. Sokol was CEO until 2008.
Until 2014, it was known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company from its root as MidAmerican Energy Company; it took on the name of its parent to reflect the diversity of its portfolio.[6]
As of 2019, BHE "serves 4.9 million retail customers, generates 29 gigawatts of power and transports 8.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day over 16,400 miles of regulated pipeline."[4]
In 2023, a jury ordered BHE subsidiary PacifiCorp to pay $70 million in punitive damages to 17 homeowners negatively impacted by wildfires that afflicted Oregon in 2020.[7]
Subsidiaries & investments
Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns the following companies:
- MidAmerican Energy Company
- MidAmerican Renewables[8] (Renewable Energy/Wind Energy)
- PacifiCorp, purchased for $9.4 billion in 2005[9]
- Northern Powergrid (formerly CE Electric UK)
- Integrated Utility Services UK
- CalEnergy Generation
- Imperial Valley Geothermal Project
- Kern River Gas Transmission Company[10]
- Kern River Pipeline
- Northern Natural Gas Company (Omaha)[11]
- BYD Company (19.92% of outstanding shares)[12]
- NV Energy (electricity and natural gas in most of Nevada)
- Metalogic Inspections Services[13] (Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Fabrication, Pipeline, Services)
- Intelligent Energy Solutions[14] (Heat Pumps, Solar Panels, and Biomass Boilers)
- AltaLink (Electric Utility in Canada) for C$3.24 billion in 2014 [15]
In 2017, BHE's proposed acquisition of Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC[16] was terminated after BHE was outbid by Sempra.[17][18]
BHE investigates producing up to 90 thousand tonnes of lithium carbonate per year (and other minerals) from its 350 MW geothermal power plants in the Lithium Valley next to the Salton Sea in California.[19][20]
<<<
---
>>> Berkshire Hathaway Energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway_Energy
Company type Subsidiary
Predecessor MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company
Headquarters Des Moines, Iowa
Key people
Greg Abel (Chairman)
William J. Fehrman (CEO & President)
Revenue Increase $25.15 billion (2021)[1]
Operating income Increase $4.25 billion (2012)[2]
Net income Increase $2.57 billion (2012)[2]
Owner Berkshire Hathaway (92%)
Walter Scott Jr. family (8%)
Parent Berkshire Hathaway
Website www.brkenergy.com
Berkshire Hathaway Energy (previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company until 2014) is a holding company and subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 92% of the company. Berkshire has owned a controlling stake since 1999.[3] The company also controls power distribution companies in the United Kingdom and Canada.[4] The remaining 8% is owned by the family of Walter Scott Jr.[5]
Greg Abel serves as chairman. Scott W. Thon is president and CEO. David L. Sokol was CEO until 2008.
Until 2014, it was known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company from its root as MidAmerican Energy Company; it took on the name of its parent to reflect the diversity of its portfolio.[6]
As of 2019, BHE "serves 4.9 million retail customers, generates 29 gigawatts of power and transports 8.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day over 16,400 miles of regulated pipeline."[4]
In 2023, a jury ordered BHE subsidiary PacifiCorp to pay $70 million in punitive damages to 17 homeowners negatively impacted by wildfires that afflicted Oregon in 2020.[7]
Subsidiaries & investments
Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns the following companies:
- MidAmerican Energy Company
- MidAmerican Renewables[8] (Renewable Energy/Wind Energy)
- PacifiCorp, purchased for $9.4 billion in 2005[9]
- Northern Powergrid (formerly CE Electric UK)
- Integrated Utility Services UK
- CalEnergy Generation
- Imperial Valley Geothermal Project
- Kern River Gas Transmission Company[10]
- Kern River Pipeline
- Northern Natural Gas Company (Omaha)[11]
- BYD Company (19.92% of outstanding shares)[12]
- NV Energy (electricity and natural gas in most of Nevada)
- Metalogic Inspections Services[13] (Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Fabrication, Pipeline, Services)
- Intelligent Energy Solutions[14] (Heat Pumps, Solar Panels, and Biomass Boilers)
- AltaLink (Electric Utility in Canada) for C$3.24 billion in 2014 [15]
In 2017, BHE's proposed acquisition of Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC[16] was terminated after BHE was outbid by Sempra.[17][18]
BHE investigates producing up to 90 thousand tonnes of lithium carbonate per year (and other minerals) from its 350 MW geothermal power plants in the Lithium Valley next to the Salton Sea in California.[19][20]
<<<
---
>>> Berkshire Hathaway Energy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkshire_Hathaway_Energy
Company type Subsidiary
Predecessor MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company
Headquarters Des Moines, Iowa
Key people
Greg Abel (Chairman)
William J. Fehrman (CEO & President)
Revenue Increase $25.15 billion (2021)[1]
Operating income Increase $4.25 billion (2012)[2]
Net income Increase $2.57 billion (2012)[2]
Owner Berkshire Hathaway (92%)
Walter Scott Jr. family (8%)
Parent Berkshire Hathaway
Website www.brkenergy.com
Berkshire Hathaway Energy (previously known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company until 2014) is a holding company and subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, which owns 92% of the company. Berkshire has owned a controlling stake since 1999.[3] The company also controls power distribution companies in the United Kingdom and Canada.[4] The remaining 8% is owned by the family of Walter Scott Jr.[5]
Greg Abel serves as chairman. Scott W. Thon is president and CEO. David L. Sokol was CEO until 2008.
Until 2014, it was known as MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company from its root as MidAmerican Energy Company; it took on the name of its parent to reflect the diversity of its portfolio.[6]
As of 2019, BHE "serves 4.9 million retail customers, generates 29 gigawatts of power and transports 8.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day over 16,400 miles of regulated pipeline."[4]
In 2023, a jury ordered BHE subsidiary PacifiCorp to pay $70 million in punitive damages to 17 homeowners negatively impacted by wildfires that afflicted Oregon in 2020.[7]
Subsidiaries & investments
Berkshire Hathaway Energy owns the following companies:
- MidAmerican Energy Company
- MidAmerican Renewables[8] (Renewable Energy/Wind Energy)
- PacifiCorp, purchased for $9.4 billion in 2005[9]
- Northern Powergrid (formerly CE Electric UK)
- Integrated Utility Services UK
- CalEnergy Generation
- Imperial Valley Geothermal Project
- Kern River Gas Transmission Company[10]
- Kern River Pipeline
- Northern Natural Gas Company (Omaha)[11]
- BYD Company (19.92% of outstanding shares)[12]
- NV Energy (electricity and natural gas in most of Nevada)
- Metalogic Inspections Services[13] (Oil and Gas, Power Generation, Fabrication, Pipeline, Services)
- Intelligent Energy Solutions[14] (Heat Pumps, Solar Panels, and Biomass Boilers)
- AltaLink (Electric Utility in Canada) for C$3.24 billion in 2014 [15]
In 2017, BHE's proposed acquisition of Oncor Electric Delivery Company LLC[16] was terminated after BHE was outbid by Sempra.[17][18]
BHE investigates producing up to 90 thousand tonnes of lithium carbonate per year (and other minerals) from its 350 MW geothermal power plants in the Lithium Valley next to the Salton Sea in California.[19][20]
<<<
---
Nvidia - >>> Exclusive: Behind the plot to break Nvidia’s grip on AI by targeting software
Reuters
by Max A. Cherney
3-25-24
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-behind-plot-break-nvidia-110359868.html
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nvidia earned its $2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial-intelligence chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from startups to Microsoft, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet.
Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years' worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia's CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps.
Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm, Google and Intel plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going after the chip giant’s secret weapon: the software that keeps developers tied to Nvidia chips. They are part of an expanding group of financiers and companies hacking away at Nvidia's dominance in AI.
"We're actually showing developers how you migrate out from an Nvidia platform," Vinesh Sukumar, Qualcomm's head of AI and machine learning, said in an interview with Reuters.
Starting with a piece of technology developed by Intel called OneAPI, the UXL Foundation, a consortium of tech companies, plans to build a suite of software and tools that will be able to power multiple types of AI accelerator chips, executives involved with the group told Reuters. The open-source project aims to make computer code run on any machine, regardless of what chip and hardware powers it.
"It's about specifically - in the context of machine learning frameworks - how do we create an open ecosystem, and promote productivity and choice in hardware," Google's director and chief technologist of high-performance computing, Bill Hugo, told Reuters in an interview. Google is one of the founding members of UXL and helps determine the technical direction of the project, Hugo said.
UXL's technical steering committee is preparing to nail down technical specifications in the first half of this year. Engineers plan to refine the technical details to a "mature" state by the end of the year, executives said. These executives stressed the need to build a solid foundation to include contributions from multiple companies that can also be deployed on any chip or hardware.
Beyond the initial companies involved, UXL will court cloud-computing companies such as Amazon.com and Microsoft's Azure, as well as additional chipmakers.
Since its launch in September, UXL has already begun to receive technical contributions from third parties that include foundation members and outsiders keen on using the open-source technology, the executives involved said. Intel's OneAPI is already useable, and the second step is to create a standard programming model of computing designed for AI.
UXL plans to put its resources toward addressing the most pressing computing problems dominated by a few chipmakers, such as the latest AI apps and high-performance computing applications. Those early plans feed in to the organization's longer-term goal of winning over a critical mass of developers to its platform.
UXL eventually aims to support Nvidia hardware and code, in the long run.
When asked about the open source and venture-funded software efforts to break Nvidia’s AI dominance, Nvidia executive Ian Buck said in a statement: "The world is getting accelerated. New ideas in accelerated computing are coming from all across the ecosystem, and that will help advance AI and the scope of what accelerated computing can achieve."
NEARLY 100 STARTUPS
The UXL Foundation's plans are one of many efforts to chip away at Nvidia's hold on the software that powers AI. Venture financiers and corporate dollars have poured more than $4 billion into 93 separate efforts, according to custom data compiled by PitchBook at Reuters’ request.
The interest in unseating Nvidia through a potential weakness in software has ramped up in the last year, and startups aiming to poke holes in the company's leadership gobbled up just over $2 billion in 2023 compared with $580 million from a year ago, according to the data from PitchBook.
Success in the shadow of Nvidia's group on AI data crunching is an achievement that few of the startups will be able to achieve. Nvidia's CUDA is a compelling piece of software on paper, as it is full-featured and is consistently growing both from Nvidia's contributions and the developer community.
"But that's not what really matters," said Jay Goldberg, chief executive of D2D Advisory, a finance and strategy consulting firm. "What matters is the fact that people have been using CUDA for 15 years, they built code around it."
<<<
---
Nvidia - >>> Exclusive: Behind the plot to break Nvidia’s grip on AI by targeting software
Reuters
by Max A. Cherney
3-25-24
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-behind-plot-break-nvidia-110359868.html
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nvidia earned its $2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial-intelligence chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from startups to Microsoft, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet.
Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years' worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia's CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps.
Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm, Google and Intel plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going after the chip giant’s secret weapon: the software that keeps developers tied to Nvidia chips. They are part of an expanding group of financiers and companies hacking away at Nvidia's dominance in AI.
"We're actually showing developers how you migrate out from an Nvidia platform," Vinesh Sukumar, Qualcomm's head of AI and machine learning, said in an interview with Reuters.
Starting with a piece of technology developed by Intel called OneAPI, the UXL Foundation, a consortium of tech companies, plans to build a suite of software and tools that will be able to power multiple types of AI accelerator chips, executives involved with the group told Reuters. The open-source project aims to make computer code run on any machine, regardless of what chip and hardware powers it.
"It's about specifically - in the context of machine learning frameworks - how do we create an open ecosystem, and promote productivity and choice in hardware," Google's director and chief technologist of high-performance computing, Bill Hugo, told Reuters in an interview. Google is one of the founding members of UXL and helps determine the technical direction of the project, Hugo said.
UXL's technical steering committee is preparing to nail down technical specifications in the first half of this year. Engineers plan to refine the technical details to a "mature" state by the end of the year, executives said. These executives stressed the need to build a solid foundation to include contributions from multiple companies that can also be deployed on any chip or hardware.
Beyond the initial companies involved, UXL will court cloud-computing companies such as Amazon.com and Microsoft's Azure, as well as additional chipmakers.
Since its launch in September, UXL has already begun to receive technical contributions from third parties that include foundation members and outsiders keen on using the open-source technology, the executives involved said. Intel's OneAPI is already useable, and the second step is to create a standard programming model of computing designed for AI.
UXL plans to put its resources toward addressing the most pressing computing problems dominated by a few chipmakers, such as the latest AI apps and high-performance computing applications. Those early plans feed in to the organization's longer-term goal of winning over a critical mass of developers to its platform.
UXL eventually aims to support Nvidia hardware and code, in the long run.
When asked about the open source and venture-funded software efforts to break Nvidia’s AI dominance, Nvidia executive Ian Buck said in a statement: "The world is getting accelerated. New ideas in accelerated computing are coming from all across the ecosystem, and that will help advance AI and the scope of what accelerated computing can achieve."
NEARLY 100 STARTUPS
The UXL Foundation's plans are one of many efforts to chip away at Nvidia's hold on the software that powers AI. Venture financiers and corporate dollars have poured more than $4 billion into 93 separate efforts, according to custom data compiled by PitchBook at Reuters’ request.
The interest in unseating Nvidia through a potential weakness in software has ramped up in the last year, and startups aiming to poke holes in the company's leadership gobbled up just over $2 billion in 2023 compared with $580 million from a year ago, according to the data from PitchBook.
Success in the shadow of Nvidia's group on AI data crunching is an achievement that few of the startups will be able to achieve. Nvidia's CUDA is a compelling piece of software on paper, as it is full-featured and is consistently growing both from Nvidia's contributions and the developer community.
"But that's not what really matters," said Jay Goldberg, chief executive of D2D Advisory, a finance and strategy consulting firm. "What matters is the fact that people have been using CUDA for 15 years, they built code around it."
<<<
---
Nvidia - >>> Exclusive: Behind the plot to break Nvidia’s grip on AI by targeting software
Reuters
by Max A. Cherney
3-25-24
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-behind-plot-break-nvidia-110359868.html
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Nvidia earned its $2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial-intelligence chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from startups to Microsoft, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet.
Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years' worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia's CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps.
Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm, Google and Intel plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going after the chip giant’s secret weapon: the software that keeps developers tied to Nvidia chips. They are part of an expanding group of financiers and companies hacking away at Nvidia's dominance in AI.
"We're actually showing developers how you migrate out from an Nvidia platform," Vinesh Sukumar, Qualcomm's head of AI and machine learning, said in an interview with Reuters.
Starting with a piece of technology developed by Intel called OneAPI, the UXL Foundation, a consortium of tech companies, plans to build a suite of software and tools that will be able to power multiple types of AI accelerator chips, executives involved with the group told Reuters. The open-source project aims to make computer code run on any machine, regardless of what chip and hardware powers it.
"It's about specifically - in the context of machine learning frameworks - how do we create an open ecosystem, and promote productivity and choice in hardware," Google's director and chief technologist of high-performance computing, Bill Hugo, told Reuters in an interview. Google is one of the founding members of UXL and helps determine the technical direction of the project, Hugo said.
UXL's technical steering committee is preparing to nail down technical specifications in the first half of this year. Engineers plan to refine the technical details to a "mature" state by the end of the year, executives said. These executives stressed the need to build a solid foundation to include contributions from multiple companies that can also be deployed on any chip or hardware.
Beyond the initial companies involved, UXL will court cloud-computing companies such as Amazon.com and Microsoft's Azure, as well as additional chipmakers.
Since its launch in September, UXL has already begun to receive technical contributions from third parties that include foundation members and outsiders keen on using the open-source technology, the executives involved said. Intel's OneAPI is already useable, and the second step is to create a standard programming model of computing designed for AI.
UXL plans to put its resources toward addressing the most pressing computing problems dominated by a few chipmakers, such as the latest AI apps and high-performance computing applications. Those early plans feed in to the organization's longer-term goal of winning over a critical mass of developers to its platform.
UXL eventually aims to support Nvidia hardware and code, in the long run.
When asked about the open source and venture-funded software efforts to break Nvidia’s AI dominance, Nvidia executive Ian Buck said in a statement: "The world is getting accelerated. New ideas in accelerated computing are coming from all across the ecosystem, and that will help advance AI and the scope of what accelerated computing can achieve."
NEARLY 100 STARTUPS
The UXL Foundation's plans are one of many efforts to chip away at Nvidia's hold on the software that powers AI. Venture financiers and corporate dollars have poured more than $4 billion into 93 separate efforts, according to custom data compiled by PitchBook at Reuters’ request.
The interest in unseating Nvidia through a potential weakness in software has ramped up in the last year, and startups aiming to poke holes in the company's leadership gobbled up just over $2 billion in 2023 compared with $580 million from a year ago, according to the data from PitchBook.
Success in the shadow of Nvidia's group on AI data crunching is an achievement that few of the startups will be able to achieve. Nvidia's CUDA is a compelling piece of software on paper, as it is full-featured and is consistently growing both from Nvidia's contributions and the developer community.
"But that's not what really matters," said Jay Goldberg, chief executive of D2D Advisory, a finance and strategy consulting firm. "What matters is the fact that people have been using CUDA for 15 years, they built code around it."
<<<
---
Altria Group - >>> Forget Buying a Rental Property: Investing $50,000 in These Ultra-High Dividend Yield Stocks Could Make You $4,500 in Passive Income
by Brett Schafer
Motley Fool
March 24, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/forget-buying-rental-property-investing-101500391.html
The internet is awash with claims that the secret to financial independence is buying real estate and renting it out as "passive" income. The problem with real estate investing is that it is not as passive as the internet claims. Maintaining a rental property requires work, as landlords must manage tenants, fix damage, and continuously search for occupants.
There are better ways to generate passive income with your savings. Enter dividend stocks. These are stocks that regularly give shareholders cash payments in the form of dividends. And the best part is, it is actually passive income, requiring zero work on your part. All you have to do is click the buy button, hold on to your shares, and, like magic, you have a new income stream.
Forget buying a rental property. With $50,000, you can buy these two stocks and get approximately $4,500 each year in passive income.
1. Altria Group: Price increases and selling minority stakes
Our first stock is Altria Group (NYSE: MO). This is a tobacco stock that sells Marlboro cigarettes (and others) in the United States, which is the largest driver of profits for shareholders. On top of cigarettes, the company owns cigar brands, nicotine pouches, and a vaping business, although they are much smaller than cigarettes today.
Cigarette volumes have been declining in the United States for the last few decades. This is good for society, but bad for a company like Altria. So what are they to do? Raise prices, of course. Altria has been able to raise the price of cigarette packs for many years to counteract volume declines. This has led to consistent growth in operating income and cash flow, which is what fuels its large dividend payout.
Altria Group owns a large stake in Anheuser Busch, the global beer company. It has started to sell off part of this stake in order to fuel share buybacks, which decrease Altria's outstanding shares. Why is this important for dividend investors? If Altria has fewer shares outstanding, it can raise its dividend payout per share while still paying the same nominal dividend each year. If the dividend per share gets raised, your passive income gets raised as well.
As of this writing, Altria stock has a dividend yield of 8.58%. That means if you use $25,000 -- half of the theoretical $50,000 pile -- to buy shares of the stock, the company will pay you $2,145 each year in dividend income. This is a dividend that has grown by 100% in the last 10 years. You can benefit without putting in any work yourself.
2. British American Tobacco: betting on a new generation
The second stock in this pairing is British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI). Like Altria, it is one of the world's largest tobacco companies, and it has counteracted volume declines for years by consistently raising prices. It owns brands including Camel, Newport, and Lucky Strike and sells products in many countries around the world.
However, unlike Altria, British American Tobacco's non-cigarette business units are a sizable portion of its operations. These "new categories" (as the company calls them) generated $4.2 billion in revenue last year and are growing rather quickly. These are nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches or e-vapor. These brands have collectively turned a profit and should help the company further counteract volume declines with cigarettes.
British American Tobacco's dividend yield is 9.37%, slightly higher than Altria's. A $25,000 investment into shares of the stock will give you an annual dividend income of $2,342.50. With the continued growth of the new categories segment, I would expect the company's dividend per share to grow this decade as well.
Add it all together, and a $50,000 investment into these two nicotine conglomerates can generate approximately $4,500 in passive income in the form of dividends each year for investors. That's at current share prices, of course. These investments require almost zero work to maintain as a shareholder, which contrasts drastically with the work that needs to be done to maintain rental properties.
Real estate can be a great investment for some people. But for those looking to build truly passive income, you might want to look at buying dividend stocks with your hard-earned savings instead.
<<<
---
Altria Group - >>> Forget Buying a Rental Property: Investing $50,000 in These Ultra-High Dividend Yield Stocks Could Make You $4,500 in Passive Income
by Brett Schafer
Motley Fool
March 24, 2024
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/forget-buying-rental-property-investing-101500391.html
The internet is awash with claims that the secret to financial independence is buying real estate and renting it out as "passive" income. The problem with real estate investing is that it is not as passive as the internet claims. Maintaining a rental property requires work, as landlords must manage tenants, fix damage, and continuously search for occupants.
There are better ways to generate passive income with your savings. Enter dividend stocks. These are stocks that regularly give shareholders cash payments in the form of dividends. And the best part is, it is actually passive income, requiring zero work on your part. All you have to do is click the buy button, hold on to your shares, and, like magic, you have a new income stream.
Forget buying a rental property. With $50,000, you can buy these two stocks and get approximately $4,500 each year in passive income.
1. Altria Group: Price increases and selling minority stakes
Our first stock is Altria Group (NYSE: MO). This is a tobacco stock that sells Marlboro cigarettes (and others) in the United States, which is the largest driver of profits for shareholders. On top of cigarettes, the company owns cigar brands, nicotine pouches, and a vaping business, although they are much smaller than cigarettes today.
Cigarette volumes have been declining in the United States for the last few decades. This is good for society, but bad for a company like Altria. So what are they to do? Raise prices, of course. Altria has been able to raise the price of cigarette packs for many years to counteract volume declines. This has led to consistent growth in operating income and cash flow, which is what fuels its large dividend payout.
Altria Group owns a large stake in Anheuser Busch, the global beer company. It has started to sell off part of this stake in order to fuel share buybacks, which decrease Altria's outstanding shares. Why is this important for dividend investors? If Altria has fewer shares outstanding, it can raise its dividend payout per share while still paying the same nominal dividend each year. If the dividend per share gets raised, your passive income gets raised as well.
As of this writing, Altria stock has a dividend yield of 8.58%. That means if you use $25,000 -- half of the theoretical $50,000 pile -- to buy shares of the stock, the company will pay you $2,145 each year in dividend income. This is a dividend that has grown by 100% in the last 10 years. You can benefit without putting in any work yourself.
2. British American Tobacco: betting on a new generation
The second stock in this pairing is British American Tobacco (NYSE: BTI). Like Altria, it is one of the world's largest tobacco companies, and it has counteracted volume declines for years by consistently raising prices. It owns brands including Camel, Newport, and Lucky Strike and sells products in many countries around the world.
However, unlike Altria, British American Tobacco's non-cigarette business units are a sizable portion of its operations. These "new categories" (as the company calls them) generated $4.2 billion in revenue last year and are growing rather quickly. These are nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches or e-vapor. These brands have collectively turned a profit and should help the company further counteract volume declines with cigarettes.
British American Tobacco's dividend yield is 9.37%, slightly higher than Altria's. A $25,000 investment into shares of the stock will give you an annual dividend income of $2,342.50. With the continued growth of the new categories segment, I would expect the company's dividend per share to grow this decade as well.
Add it all together, and a $50,000 investment into these two nicotine conglomerates can generate approximately $4,500 in passive income in the form of dividends each year for investors. That's at current share prices, of course. These investments require almost zero work to maintain as a shareholder, which contrasts drastically with the work that needs to be done to maintain rental properties.
Real estate can be a great investment for some people. But for those looking to build truly passive income, you might want to look at buying dividend stocks with your hard-earned savings instead.
<<<
---
>>> Cannabis Stocks Could Get a Lift From an Unexpected Catalyst Later This Year
Motley Fool
By David Jagielski
Mar 20, 2024
https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/03/20/cannabis-stocks-could-get-a-lift-from-an-unexpecte/
KEY POINTS
President Joe Biden recently mentioned marijuana in his State of the Union address.
Cannabis may come back into the spotlight this year, and it could potentially sway some voters.
The last presidential election year, 2020, was a great one for many cannabis stocks.
Valuations are low in the cannabis industry, and now may be an opportune time for long-term investors to buy pot stocks.
Cannabis stocks have been struggling for years. Since 2021, the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF has declined by more than 75%. With no serious movement on marijuana reform at the federal level, despite more states legalizing medical and recreational use, investors have become frustrated with the industry. The red tape makes it difficult for cannabis companies to operate efficiently, and many remain unprofitable.
There is, however, a potential catalyst on the horizon this year which could give the industry a much-needed boost, and which may help cannabis stocks rise in value. Given that it is an election year, cannabis may benefit from some positive developments in the months ahead.
Is cannabis back on the president's radar?
President Joe Biden recently held his State of the Union address, and what got the attention of many cannabis investors was the mention of marijuana. It's not something the president normally discusses, but in his speech, he highlighted police reform and reviewing the classification of marijuana and stated that "no one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana."
The president didn't promise anything new on marijuana or suggest that further movement or reform is coming. But the mention of marijuana, especially with the federal election on the horizon this year, is certainly noteworthy as it suggests that the topic could be on his radar. With cannabis growing in popularity, any talk of legalization could win over voters in what may be a tight election contest later this year.
The last election cycle was a positive one for pot stocks
In 2020, many pot stocks had great years. A big part of the reason was due to the hope and excitement that a new Democratic government might be receptive to marijuana reform. In 2020, shares of Trulieve Cannabis soared 167%, and fellow multi-state operators Green Thumb Industries and Curaleaf Holdings saw their stocks rise by 151% and 90%, respectively.
Investors may be more skeptical this time around, as a change in government after the 2020 election didn't have the positive effect many were hoping it would for the industry. But with Biden's government taking a look at reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I substance down to a less restrictive category, there has been at least some hope that changes could be coming. While legalization may still be a long shot, marijuana could be an election issue that generates interest from the public later this year, and that much-needed spotlight may help rally some badly beaten-down pot stocks.
Valuations in the cannabis industry are incredibly low
Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, and Trulieve Cannabis are three of the top producers in the marijuana industry. These companies all generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. But in terms of their price-to-sales multiples, these stocks are trading at some much lower valuations than in recent years.
For long-term investors, these could be tempting stocks to load up on, as they could possess a lot of upside in the future.
Is now the time to buy pot stocks?
Pot stocks are risky investments, and even the leading companies (Trulieve, Curaleaf) remain unprofitable. Green Thumb has turned a profit, but with a margin of just 3%, it isn't exactly generating a boatload of earnings.
These are still volatile stocks to put in your portfolio, but if you're willing to hang on for long haul, they could pay off with significant returns down the road given their low valuations. Cannabis investors shouldn't expect a growth catalyst this year from the president or the election, but it may not be surprising if one arises.
If you're prepared to hold for the long term and are OK with the risk, now may be a good time to add some exposure to the cannabis industry to your portfolio. But you should go into it knowing that marijuana legalization may still not happen in the U.S. anytime soon, and that it's by no means guaranteed to happen regardless of who the next president is.
<<<
---
>>> Cannabis Stocks Could Get a Lift From an Unexpected Catalyst Later This Year
Motley Fool
By David Jagielski
Mar 20, 2024
https://www.fool.com/investing/2024/03/20/cannabis-stocks-could-get-a-lift-from-an-unexpecte/
KEY POINTS
President Joe Biden recently mentioned marijuana in his State of the Union address.
Cannabis may come back into the spotlight this year, and it could potentially sway some voters.
The last presidential election year, 2020, was a great one for many cannabis stocks.
Valuations are low in the cannabis industry, and now may be an opportune time for long-term investors to buy pot stocks.
Cannabis stocks have been struggling for years. Since 2021, the AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF has declined by more than 75%. With no serious movement on marijuana reform at the federal level, despite more states legalizing medical and recreational use, investors have become frustrated with the industry. The red tape makes it difficult for cannabis companies to operate efficiently, and many remain unprofitable.
There is, however, a potential catalyst on the horizon this year which could give the industry a much-needed boost, and which may help cannabis stocks rise in value. Given that it is an election year, cannabis may benefit from some positive developments in the months ahead.
Is cannabis back on the president's radar?
President Joe Biden recently held his State of the Union address, and what got the attention of many cannabis investors was the mention of marijuana. It's not something the president normally discusses, but in his speech, he highlighted police reform and reviewing the classification of marijuana and stated that "no one should be jailed for using or possessing marijuana."
The president didn't promise anything new on marijuana or suggest that further movement or reform is coming. But the mention of marijuana, especially with the federal election on the horizon this year, is certainly noteworthy as it suggests that the topic could be on his radar. With cannabis growing in popularity, any talk of legalization could win over voters in what may be a tight election contest later this year.
The last election cycle was a positive one for pot stocks
In 2020, many pot stocks had great years. A big part of the reason was due to the hope and excitement that a new Democratic government might be receptive to marijuana reform. In 2020, shares of Trulieve Cannabis soared 167%, and fellow multi-state operators Green Thumb Industries and Curaleaf Holdings saw their stocks rise by 151% and 90%, respectively.
Investors may be more skeptical this time around, as a change in government after the 2020 election didn't have the positive effect many were hoping it would for the industry. But with Biden's government taking a look at reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I substance down to a less restrictive category, there has been at least some hope that changes could be coming. While legalization may still be a long shot, marijuana could be an election issue that generates interest from the public later this year, and that much-needed spotlight may help rally some badly beaten-down pot stocks.
Valuations in the cannabis industry are incredibly low
Curaleaf, Green Thumb Industries, and Trulieve Cannabis are three of the top producers in the marijuana industry. These companies all generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue. But in terms of their price-to-sales multiples, these stocks are trading at some much lower valuations than in recent years.
For long-term investors, these could be tempting stocks to load up on, as they could possess a lot of upside in the future.
Is now the time to buy pot stocks?
Pot stocks are risky investments, and even the leading companies (Trulieve, Curaleaf) remain unprofitable. Green Thumb has turned a profit, but with a margin of just 3%, it isn't exactly generating a boatload of earnings.
These are still volatile stocks to put in your portfolio, but if you're willing to hang on for long haul, they could pay off with significant returns down the road given their low valuations. Cannabis investors shouldn't expect a growth catalyst this year from the president or the election, but it may not be surprising if one arises.
If you're prepared to hold for the long term and are OK with the risk, now may be a good time to add some exposure to the cannabis industry to your portfolio. But you should go into it knowing that marijuana legalization may still not happen in the U.S. anytime soon, and that it's by no means guaranteed to happen regardless of who the next president is.
<<<
---
Bar, Yes, I doubt Buffett would be interesting in the cannabis sector under any circumstances because of ethical reasons, plus it would be a bad move from a public relations standpoint. But Ben Graham would probably be all over those stocks, if he believed the value was there.
I haven't followed the sector closely, but I think one of the problems is overproduction - they just cranked out too much supply, but there are probably a lot of other problems. The one pot related stock I'm considering is Scotts Miracle Gro (SMG). They have their regular lawn + garden business, but also a Hawthorne unit which is a big supplier for the cannabis industry, hydroponics, etc. They may be spinning it out as a separate unit (?), but if the broader cannabis sector finally recovers, I figure SMG should be a beneficiary, and they have their traditional business, so it's a low risk way to play it, SMG had been a nice long term buy / hold prior to it being caught in the cannabis vortex. Anyway, getting exposure to the pot sector is not a high priority imo, but maybe a small position might make sense.
Fwiw, in keeping with the Buffet / Munger focus on great stocks at a discount, I've taken some small positions in stocks that have been strong long term holdings, but have run into some headwinds. I remember Buffett saying that he largely avoids turnarounds 'because they rarely turn around', but most of these are more 'contrarian values', rather than deep turnarounds. Here are some current ideas (link below), and additional ideas are welcome :o) The ones highlighted in red I have, but only small positions -
Contrarian Value Ideas -
https://investorshub.advfn.com/Contrarian-Value-Ideas-30183
---
Bar, >> never chase fads whether it be marijuana or EVs <<
Actually the 'stoner stocks' may have finally put in a bottom. Still early, but the stars and planets could be aligning. The FDA just came out in favor of re-scheduling cannabis from Sch 1 to Sch 3, Germany just legalized recreational use, and both Dem and Rep leadership in the US want to see regular bank type funding for the cannabis industry. Meanwhile, for better or worse, psychedelics are rapidly being legalized as 'medicinal treatments'.
The Libertarian side of me says OK, but because this push toward broad legalization and acceptance is coming from what we used to call 'The Establishment', it's hard not to suspect a malevolent motivation underlying it all, beyond the usual profit motive. Anyway, if Ben Graham was around today, with his 'last puff' brand of extreme value / vulture investing, he would likely be kicking the tires and looking for values within this devastated sector.
---
Bar, >> preserve and grow wealth <<
You were serious minded about investing from the start, so a big plus. And you didn't waver from that approach, which is unusual, but has really paid off. I also started out conservative, but eventually went astray and succumbed to the allure of fast riches, but eventually returned to a more reasoned approach. So better late than never, lol. I still regret not owning more real estate, but having that big mortgage never felt right. But in retrospect, more people have reliably built wealth by owning their home than from the stock market.
---