Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF 0.18%), a cannabis retailer and packaged goods seller, and NewLake Capital Partners (NLCP -4.19%), a cannabis-focused real estate investment trust (REIT), are two of the most successful companies in cannabis.
They are consistently profitable and have experienced steady growth that makes them good choices to buy now and hold for the next decade. The decline of marijuana stocks this year hasn’t left these two unscathed, with Green Thumb down more than 52% this year and NewLake down more than 42%, but that also makes them better buys for long-term investors.
Cannabis stocks, in general, have a lot of upside because the industry is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 20% between now and 2025, becoming a $30 billion industry by that time, according to a study by New Frontier Data. The key, of course, is finding cannabis companies that will survive to benefit from that growth and the financial states of Green Thumb Industries and NewLake Capital Partners give me confidence.
Green Thumb is going against the trend
Green Thumb just had its eighth consecutive profitable quarter, and that’s in net income, not operating earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). At a time when other cannabis companies are seeing declining numbers, Green Thumb reported revenue in the second quarter of $254.3 million, up 14.6% year over year and up 4.8% sequentially. Net income was listed at $24.4 million, or $0.10 per share, compared to $22.05 million and earnings per share of $0.10 in the same period last year.
The company attributed the strong quarter to increased retail sales in New Jersey and Illinois and the addition of 19 new retail locations, bringing Green Thumb’s number of stores to 77. The company has increased annual revenue by 126.7% over the past six years and is on pace for another record year of revenue in 2022.
Green Thumb is in a good position to grow because it focuses on limited-license states, leading to more profitability. On top of that, it beefed up infrastructure last year in New Jersey and New York. Since then, New Jersey has already gone to adult-use sales and New York is expected to do so by as early as this fall.
The company has a price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 26.85, below that of the handful of profitable pure-play marijuana companies.
NewLake Capital Partners has plenty of growth planned
NewLake Capital Partners is a real estate investment trust that specializes in sale-leaseback transactions to cannabis companies, using triple-net leases, as well as funding build-to-suit projects for cannabis companies. As of Aug. 2, it had 31 cultivation facilities and dispensaries that were leased to single tenants.
The company’s stock is down more than 42% this year, but its financial strength appears to be growing. It has grown adjusted funds from operations for five consecutive quarters since it went public with an initial public offering (IPO) in 2021, and has increased net income in four of the past five quarters.
The company just announced its second-quarter report, with reported revenue of $10.5 million, up 59% year over year, and adjusted funds from operation (AFFO) of $8.7 million, up 7% sequentially and 77.5% over the same period a year ago. Net income was $3.8 million, down 24% sequentially, with the company citing an executive severance package for the difference. Still, even with that, the number was an improvement over the same period last year, when the company said it lost $14.6 million.
It is growing, but selectively, funding acquisitions for established cannabis companies. It added $34.8 million in acquisitions in the second quarter and funded an additional $34.5 million in facility improvements for tenants.
The company’s drop in share price has made its dividend yield higher, currently around 8.48%. It’s also given the stock a lower P/E of only 23.61, making it appear to be a bargain considering the company’s recent history of revenue growth. The company just announced it was increasing its dividend by 2% to $0.35, the fifth consecutive quarter it has boosted its dividend.
Risk, with plenty of reward
Green Thumb Industries has only been around since 2014 and didn’t start trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange until 2018 and over the counter in the U.S. until an IPO last year. That means neither company has a long track record as a publicly traded company, so that brings in some risk.
I consider both companies bargains at their current share prices, with low P/Es for the industry. They are consistently profitable and have had steady revenue (and in NewLake’s case, AFFO growth) at a time when other cannabis companies are struggling. When the market again begins to show favor on cannabis stocks, they are poised to benefit because they are healthy enough to expand.
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