What goes up, must come down. But not necessarily this fast.
Canadian marijuana stocks that posted staggering gains on Wednesday fell just as fast Thursday, while U.S. multistate operators, or MSOs, were dragged down, but fared a bit better.
Tilray stock (ticker: TLRY) fell 49.7% Thursday, erasing all its gains from the prior trading day. Aphria stock (APHA) closed down 35.8%. Those companies expect to close a merger in the first half of the year. Under the deal announced in December, an investor would receive about 0.84 shares of the combined Tilray for every share of Aphria that they owned. Aurora Cannabis shares (ACB) were down 23.5%, while Canopy Growth (CGC) fell 22.1%.
ETFMG Alternative Harvest (MJ), an exchange-traded fund with exposure to the pot business, fell 24.6% from its Wednesday close. The ETF is still up about 74.5% year-to-date.
Meanwhile, Curaleaf (CURLF), a U.S. operator that lists shares over-the-counter in the U.S., fell 7.2%. Peers Green Thumb Industries (GTBIF), Cresco Labs (CRLBF), and Trulieve Cannabis (TCNNF) were down between 6% and 8%.
Canadian pot stocks, especially, have rallied in recent months on a wave of sentiment-driven gains as investors bet on positive political developments. Meanwhile, U.S. growers, which would benefit from an improved legal landscape, have lagged their competitors that operate in the smaller Canadian market.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Pablo Zuanic told Barron’s in an email that the recent action in pot stocks involving Reddit traders makes it hard to predict day-to-day moves, especially with the more-liquid Canadian growers.
“A look at the [GameStop] stock chart should be cautionary,” Zuanic added. “That said, we continue to think the top US MSOs are attractively valued taking a long-term view, even though they will get some of the Canadian downdraft.”
Ironically, some observers last month likened the move in GameStop (GME) to Tilray’s brief parabolic jump in 2018. The WallStreetBets forum on Reddit was recently littered with posts about pot stocks. One of the top posts Thursday morning likened the recent action in Canadian pot stocks to a casino.
Zuanic said on Wednesday that the gap in performance between U.S. and Canadian licensed producers, or LPs, could signal interest from the Robinhood crowd. Robinhood users can’t trade over-the-counter stocks on the platform.
“Sure, the news flow backdrop has also helped (the notion the US will open soon and Canadian LPs will benefit; news about exports), but we think this does not explain the big delta in Canada vs. US performance,” he said. “We wonder if the average RH retail investor knows the difference between an MSO and an LP, and the very different fundamentals of both cannabis markets.”
Ihor Dusaniwsky, a managing director at short-selling analytics firm S3 Partners, noted on Wednesday that there’s also a short-selling angle at play. Tilray began the year with short interest at about 48% of shares available for trading, according to S3 Partners. S3 estimates a recent short interest at 23% of shares available for trading, implying a large amount of covering, which helps drive prices up.
Short sellers sell borrowed shares with the hope they can replace the stock by purchasing it at a lower price. Dusaniwsky notes that Tilray and Cronos (CRON) saw the largest yearly decrease in short interest as a percentage of shares available for trading. He added that the top 20 cannabis shorts in the sector were down $4.32 billion in net-of-financing mark-to-market losses in 2021 by Wednesday.
“The yearlong rally has spurred short squeezes in most of the top 20 most shorted stocks in the sector and we should see the squeezes continuing, especially if the potential for nationwide U.S. cannabis legalization continues to increase,” Dusaniwsky added.
As with GameStop, the traditional buy-and-hold investor might want to stay away until things cool down.
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When will Berkshire Hathaway stop selling Bank of America stock?
Berkshire began liquidating its big stake in the banking company in mid-July—and has already unloaded about 15% of its interest. The selling has been fairly aggressive and has totaled about $6 billion. (Berkshire still holds 883 million shares, an 11.3% interest worth $35 billion based on its most recent filing on Aug. 30.)
The selling has prompted speculation about when CEO Warren Buffett, who oversees Berkshire’s $300 billion equity portfolio, will stop. The sales have depressed Bank of America stock, which has underperformed peers since Berkshire began its sell program. The stock closed down 0.9% Thursday at $40.14.
It’s possible that Berkshire will stop selling when the stake drops to 700 million shares. Taxes and history would be the reasons why.
Berkshire accumulated its Bank of America stake in two stages—and at vastly different prices. Berkshire’s initial stake came in 2017 , when it swapped $5 billion of Bank of America preferred stock for 700 million shares of common stock via warrants it received as part of the original preferred investment in 2011.
Berkshire got a sweet deal in that 2011 transaction. At the time, Bank of America was looking for a Buffett imprimatur—and the bank’s stock price was weak and under $10 a share.
Berkshire paid about $7 a share for that initial stake of 700 million common shares. The rest of the Berkshire stake, more than 300 million shares, was mostly purchased in 2018 at around $30 a share.
With Bank of America stock currently trading around $40, Berkshire faces a high tax burden from selling shares from the original stake of 700 million shares, given the low cost basis, and a much lighter tax hit from unloading the rest. Berkshire is subject to corporate taxes—an estimated 25% including local taxes—on gains on any sales of stock. The tax bite is stark.
Berkshire might own $2 to $3 a share in taxes on sales of high-cost stock and $8 a share on low-cost stock purchased for $7 a share.
New York tax expert Robert Willens says corporations, like individuals, can specify the particular lots when they sell stock with multiple cost levels.
“If stock is held in the custody of a broker, an adequate identification is made if the taxpayer specifies to the broker having custody of the stock the particular stock to be sold and, within a reasonable time thereafter, confirmation of such specification is set forth in a written document from the broker,” Willens told Barron’s in an email.
He assumes that Berkshire will identify the high-cost Bank of America stock for the recent sales to minimize its tax liability.
If sellers don’t specify, they generally are subject to “first in, first out,” or FIFO, accounting, meaning that the stock bought first would be subject to any tax on gains.
Buffett tends to be tax-averse—and that may prompt him to keep the original stake of 700 million shares. He could also mull any loyalty he may feel toward Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan , whom Buffett has praised in the past.
Another reason for Berkshire to hold Bank of America is that it’s the company’s only big equity holding among traditional banks after selling shares of U.S. Bancorp , Bank of New York Mellon , JPMorgan Chase , and Wells Fargo in recent years.
Buffett, however, often eliminates stock holdings after he begins selling them down, as he did with the other bank stocks. Berkshire does retain a smaller stake of about $3 billion in Citigroup.
There could be a new filing on sales of Bank of America stock by Berkshire on Thursday evening. It has been three business days since the last one.
Berkshire must file within two business days of any sales of Bank of America stock since it owns more than 10%. The conglomerate will need to get its stake under about 777 million shares, about 100 million below the current level, before it can avoid the two-day filing rule.
It should be said that taxes haven’t deterred Buffett from selling over half of Berkshire’s stake in Apple this year—an estimated $85 billion or more of stock. Barron’s has estimated that Berkshire may owe $15 billion on the bulk of the sales that occurred in the second quarter.
Berkshire now holds 400 million shares of Apple and Barron’s has argued that Buffett may be finished reducing the Apple stake at that round number, which is the same number of shares that Berkshire has held in Coca-Cola for more than two decades.
Buffett may like round numbers—and 700 million could be just the right figure for Bank of America.
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