Yahoo News reports: Nevada's 1st year of pot sales beats forecast by 40 percent
The first full year of legal marijuana sales in Nevada exceeded expectations by 40 percent, state tax officials said Tuesday.
Taxable pot sales statewide totaled $529.9 million and raised nearly $70 million in tax revenue, including $27.5 million for schools, the Nevada Department of Taxation said.
Taxable pot sales statewide totaled $529.9 million and raised nearly $70 million in tax revenue, including $27.5 million for schools, the Nevada Department of Taxation said.
First, is the big number – just shy of $530 million in legal marijuana sales for the state.
Nevada has a population of just three million – or about 1% of the total U.S. population.
So if we extrapolate that out across the rest of the country, it’s easy to get to a total of $50 billion or more for the total market size of legal marijuana in time.
On top of that, these sales numbers are just the first year. If it’s anything like Colorado or Washington, there’s much more growth to come.
The second key data is “exceeded expectations by 40%.”
This is a critical point to keeping the marijuana bull market steaming ahead.
Here’s why.
By now, you already know the basics behind the marijuana boom.
It’s the world’s greatest growth story. Legal marijuana is on its way to becoming a $50 billion+ industry in the United States and Canada. Countries around the world are taking steps to legalize it. And we’re still in the early stages.
Here’s the problem at this point in the marijuana bull market – the market knows all of this now too.
That’s why the Seed Investor sees this “exceeded expectations by 40%” as some of the biggest marijuana investing news you’ll see all week.
After all, marijuana stocks – despite so much going for them – are still stocks.
As a result, they’re driven entirely by expectations.
Expectations are everything to stocks.
Just look at the most recent quarterly results for Facebook (FB).
The social media giant managed to post earnings of $1.74 per share and generate $13.36 billion in revenue.
That’s an increase of 43% in revenue and a 31% increase in revenues.
Pretty strong growth, especially for a company as big as Facebook.
However, Facebook shares plummeted 24% immediately following the announcement.
The cause of the collapse was expectations.
Or, more specifically, Facebook failing to live up to expectations.
Facebook only managed to beat official earnings expectations by $0.02 cents a share but came up $130 million below forecast for revenue.
The failure to meet or exceed all expectations had massive consequences for the stock when Facebook shares nosedived after the quarterly performance numbers were revealed.
That’s why the Seed Investor watches expectations for marijuana and marijuana stocks so closely at this stage in the marijuana bull market.
As long as growth is ahead of expectations, the marijuana bull market has plenty more room to run, especially as it matures and creates new opportunities.