Hey Snackers,
The great oat milk shortage of 2019 is almost over (a new factory's arriving ASAP to increase production by 10x).
The great win streak isn't. The S&P 500 rose for the 8th-straight day for its longest stretch in over a year.
CBD-focused New Age Beverage surges 39% on Walmart hookup
Sparkling water wasn't mindful enough... So New Age Beverage happened. It's leading the wellness beverage space with exotic kombucha-esque drinks. New Age shares surged 39% Monday as it signed a Walmart distribution deal — three low-sugar/carb/calorie Bob Marley-branded energy teas will hit shelves of Earth's biggest retailer.
The deal smelled of CBD... (but it was technically CBD-free). New Age bought the Marley brand in 2017. With the blessing of Bob's family and a partnership with a cannabis investment fund, New Age turned to CBD: The relaxing, psychoactive-less pot extract you see everywhere.
- In January, New Age announced plans for a CBD-enhanced "Marley Mellow Mood" flavor within the next year.
- Those 15.5-ounce cans would be filled with 25mg of "pharmacy-grade" CBD.
- The CEO already projected $30M in sales nationwide in the first year of CBD Mellow's launch.
- And you can already find Mellow on Amazon — But it's got no CBD. And there's a reason.
One main factor affects New Age's CBD future... The federal government. While cannabis is legal in some US states, it's still not legal federally. That's an issue if you're distributing nationwide with, say, Walmart. May 31st is the FDA's public hearing on CBD foods, so New Age has its calendar circled. Until legalization, only CBD-free New Age drinks are included in the Walmart deal.
AMC theaters jumps 9% thanks to huge Avengers ticket pre-sale
Best superhero in a supporting role... goes to Avengers: Endgame. Pre-sale tickets for the roughly 712th edition of the Marvel movie series immediately broke records. That's why a research analyst upgraded shares of AMC Entertainment, and they jumped 9% on the report.
Don't care about IMAX or 3D-printed massage recliner seats... Your Snacks team ID'd three trends that explain why movie theaters are still a growing business:
- International: AMC's got a deal to bring movies to Saudi Arabia for the first time. And China's expected to become the world's biggest movie market soon.
- Remakes, reboots, & blockbusters: Global hunger for spandex'd superhumans is insatiable. Aladdin, Lion King, and Pikachu are joining this year's summer movie lineup, too.
- Subscriptions: MoviePass brought subscriptions to movies, but AMC's running with it — Its copycat "Stubs A-List" program ($24/month for 3 movies/week) has 19M members now.
International growth > Domestic problems... With Netflix standing by, it's easy to decline Saturday's expensive $50 movie-out-for-two. North American box office sales barely budged over the past decade (just up ~1% per year). But AMC's tapping into a still growing industry: Exporting American-style movie theaters abroad for American-style movies.
One particular analyst made General Electric fall 5%
Don't take it personally, GE... The "equity analyst" job description involves being judgy. Really judgy. About stocks. And JPMorgan's analyst for General Electric announced he thinks the stock's not worth as much as everybody else thinks. It's just his opinion, but investors listen, so GE shares fell 5%.
GE's come a long way... Just not long enough, according to Stephen Tusa:
- The Golden Era (1892-2016): GE became the American corporate conglomerate legend, making machines that moved people, mountains, and power.
- The Reckoning (2016-2017): Tusa was first to call out GE for its profitability problems in a 235-page memo in May 2016. Here's his follow-up a year later (a quick 133-page read). Shares are down 68% since 2016.
- The Cleanup (2018-today): Fixing GE is a work in progress, but shares have risen 50% on that progress so far.
A 127-year-old is really, really slow to change... GE's been impressively honest with itself about its problems. It's on its 3rd CEO in two years, written down the value of a bunch of its poorer divisions, and chosen just three it'll focus on going forward (aviation, power, and renewable energy). Tusa sees a lot more work to do.
What else we’re Snackin’
- Talent: Sony jumps 8% on word an activist hedge fund just invested big in its entertainment future
- Out-out: Nissan's legendary CEO Carlos Ghosn was already in Japanese jail for tax dodging — Now the board has officially replaced him
- Harmony: Sonos and Ikea just partnered up to make a speaker lamp together
- Waft: Juul (e-cig maker) got a letter from Congress asking about its investment from Altria (real cig maker)
Tuesday
- The first time Levi's reports its quarterly earnings since its March IPO
- Israel's presidential election