Here’s why cannabis stock Green Thumb will climb higher

The sector has seen a little more buzz of late, but cannabis stocks both in Canada and the US have been horrible for almost two years now. But for investors looking to get into the space, US multi-state operator Green Thumb Industries (Green Thumb Industries Stock Quote, Charts, News, Analysts, Financials CSE:GTII) should be on your wish list, according to portfolio manager Bruce Campbell. 

President of StoneCastle Investment Management, Campbell recently named GTII one of his top picks for the 12 months ahead, saying not only does the company have a lot of growth ahead of it but the industry itself could get a big boost from movement on cannabis at the US federal level.

“This is one of those cannabis [Multi-State Operators (MSOs)] down in the US, and if you talk to most people who are really familiar with the sector, this company has probably been one of the strongest teams in place,” said Campbell, speaking on BNN Bloomberg on Monday.

“They have some of the strongest assets and they’re in some of the strongest markets,” he said.

Headquartered in Chicago and with operations across 15 markets in the US, Green Thumb has a portfolio of branded cannabis products and stores, along with 17 manufacturing facilities. Most recently, the company posted $261 million in third quarter 2022 revenue, up 12 per cent from a year earlier, and adjusted EBITDA of $84.5 million compared to $81.2 million a year earlier. (All figures in US dollars except where noted otherwise.)

The stock has shown some life recently, rising from a low of just over C$10 in early July to now a bit above C$17 per share — that’s still a fair bit shy of the C$45 it was trading at in early 2021, before the market started souring on cannabis stocks. 

But Campbell says there are some potentially substantial catalysts up ahead for GTII and the whole sector. 

“This stock is down on the year but in the last few months has been starting to come up,” he said. “If we saw any type of regulatory changes that would certainly help and if we saw any structural changes where some of the institutional managers could come back into and own on these MSOs and then these stocks would be trading at a lot higher multiple.”

“We think that Green Thumb’s underlying business also continues to grow,” he said.