The more I crunch the numbers on the ongoing rotation of money through the cannabis industry, the better the middle-term view looks. We might finally be seeing the green light at the end of a long tunnel.
Admittedly, it has been a miserable year. Across the stocks I track, close to $900 million in investor capital has evaporated in the last eight months.
But the group as a whole is now up 6% so far this year as money flows out of the established giants like Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE:CGC) and Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE:ACB). In fact, ACB has now lost its No. 2 cannabis stock status.
Aphria Corp (NASDAQ:APHA) is now a larger company by market capitalization, as befits its more defensive medicinal orientation. And once-tiny retail distributor Green Thumb Industries Inc. (OTCMKTS:GTBIF) is now bigger than both APHA and ACB put together.
If GTBIF is the future, I think the industry as a whole has turned the corner and will reward investors again. I’m looking forward to that.
We clearly needed a breath of fresh air here. As it is, GTBIF has created almost as much wealth so far this year as leading cultivator CGC has hemorrhaged over the same period.
And if GrowGeneration Corp. (NASDAQ:GRWG) can keep expanding, we’ll have a new giant to contend with one of these days. Reading between the lines, the initial “green gold rush” is over. It is time for a new generation of companies to step up.