Cannabis Stocks Update
- Alan J. Brochstein
- Jul 15
- 3 min read
I share a lot about cannabis stocks on Seeking Alpha and at New Cannabis Ventures, but not that much here. Even if you don't want to pay, you can access my thinking free of charge on my blog at Seeking Alpha or through the weekly newsletter at NCV. I continue to publish weekly articles on Seeking Alpha, but those have access that is limited. Of course, I do offer something better, but it does cost money: 420 Investor.
Those articles that I have recently published include:
The recent NCV Newsletter articles have been:
So, what am I thinking about today? Well, cannabis stocks have increased in price a lot since my piece here on 6/22. The NCV Global Cannabis Stock Index, which was rebalanced on 6/30, closed yesterday at 5.61, which is up 14.3% since then. Bull market? NO! The move seems bogus, as I wrote in the NCV newsletter last week. Since then, the market has dropped slightly.
It is hard for me to get excited about 420 Investor, as no one seems to care these days about cannabis stocks. I am grateful to those who remain my subscribers, but things are not as much fun as they were years ago. I am excited right now about one thing: My model portfolio is up in 2025 relative to the Global Cannabis Stock Index, which is what I aim to do. Of course, it is not up, as it has declined 14.9%. The GCSI, though, is down 18.5%. Not bad!
Today, I am going to update you on the current model portfolio's holdings, which include 8 names of the 20 that I cover. When I wrote the TLRY downgrade (to Neutral from Strong Buy), I still owned some. I exited the name yesterday. Alphabetically by ticker, the names I hold now include Cronos Group (CRON), GrowGeneration (GRWG), Innovative Industrial Properties (IIPR), WM Technology (MAPS), Organigram (OGI), Planet 13 (PLNH), Village Farms (VFF) and Verano Holdings (VRNOF). There are three positions that are quite large, and I have written about each of them at Seeking Alpha.
Looking at my exposure by sub-sector, I am underweight relative to the index the MSOs now:
I am overweight the ancillary names and slightly underweight the Canadian LPs, which have lifted a lot recently. My cash level dropped a bit yesterday, but it is very high. I have a rule that I follow: 20% maximum.
The index I am beating is down 18.5%, and my model portfolio is down 14.9%, as I said above. The names I hold, though, are quite mixed in their returns:
CRON: +2.5%
GRWG: -39.1%
IIPR: -15.6%
MAPS: -30.0%
OGI: -8.1%
PLNH: -48.8%
VFF: +71.2%
VRNOF: -49.8%
Coincidentally, the average (not the weighted average) is about the same as my year-to-date model portfolio performance at -14.7%, slightly better. I think it is interesting that the two MSOs that I own that are both down about 50% are small, as is VFF, which is up a ton (though it is larger than the two of them combined). I think that it's quite interesting too that I still like VFF despite the rally. I did explain this in an article on Seeking Alpha.
I have been thinking a lot about THC from hemp too, and I launched my new website about it. There really is no way for people to invest in stocks leveraged to it.
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