The high is wearing off for investors in cannabis stocks

published 22 November 2019

Legalisation in Canada and California meant that the cannabis sector was "white-hot" last year, says Kristine Owram on Bloomberg. Yet many North American pot firms have now "lost two-thirds... of their value". Canada's Canopy Growth Corporation, the world's largest, has reported poor sales.

The shares are down 47% so far this year. CEO Mark Zekulin told analysts that the "addressable market is only about half of what was originally expected", reports Ciara Linnane for MarketWatch. Cannabis retailer MedMen announced at the end of last week that it will cut "more than 20% of its staff" as it struggles with a cash crunch.

The industry faces several problems, says Owram. Efforts to legalise it in new markets have stalled, established black-market dealers are providing stiff competition and big institutional investors are sitting on the sidelines because the drug remains "federally illegal in the US". That leaves cannabis shares hostage to the whims of retail investors.

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The market has become plagued by oversupply, adds Alexander Osipovich in The Wall Street Journal. Yet some analysts think that the recent falls are a buying opportunity. As more European and Latin American countries move towards legalising medicinal or recreational cannabis, the "long-term growth prospects" will still be tempting for some.

Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019.

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere.

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful.

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.