Last year was supposed to be when marijuana stocks proved their worth to Wall Street. Following years of promises, and plenty of acquisition activity, it was widely believed that sales would soar and pot stocks would push into the profit column by year's end.
Instead, cannabis stocks logged their worst year yet, with supply issues in Canada leading to pot product shortages and/or bottlenecks in key provinces, and high tax rates in a handful of recreationally legal U.S. states leaving the door wide open for the black market to thrive. Although there's no doubt that there's plenty of money to be had by investing in the green rush, the marijuana industry's growth trajectory has certainly been flattened and pushed out a bit.
Nevertheless, there are a handful of pot stocks that are fully capable of outperforming in a challenging environment. Based on their existing growth trajectory and Wall Street's very fluid sales projections, I view four vertically integrated multistate operators (MSO) in the U.S. as the likeliest to hit $1 billion in annual sales on a recurring basis by 2022, or possibly even sooner.