It’s better to be a weed company landlord than an actual weed company

Innovative Industrial Properties’ stock price tends to outperform its tenants’.

2/20/25 1:07PM

IIP, a major landlord in the US cannabis industry, seems to be weathering the storm a little better than its tenants.

IIP on Wednesday revealed that its annual revenue slipped for the first time ever in 2024, dipping to $308.5 million from $309.5 million in 2023. Investors were unimpressed but also not particularly disappointed with the company’s results, which were largely in line with Wall Street’s expectations. The stock was up less than 1% by midday Thursday.

The regression was a reversal for IIP, whose sales have skyrocketed since it was founded in 2016, when fewer states had some form of legal cannabis.

US cannabis operators struggle with limited access to banking, an unfriendly tax code, and high levels of debt without the benefit of bankruptcy protections. The US cannabis market has as much as $6 billion in debt maturities coming up in the next year, Beau Whitney, chief economist at Whitney Economics, told Bloomberg.

IIP — the largest cannabis company by market capitalization — isn’t considered a plant-touching company, and therefore it doesn’t face the same legal hurdles as its tenants. Its stock also tends to outperform theirs. (US cannabis-touching companies can’t list on major exchanges, but make up the basket of some ETFs like AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF.)

But that doesn’t mean it’s completely unexposed to turmoil in the industry. IIP had previously disclosed that one of its tenants, PharmaCann, defaulted on December and January rents. IIP said on Wednesday that it reached a deal with PharmaCann to pay back the missed rent, which included lowering the base rent from $2.8 million to $2.6 million. The company also reported having to apply $5.7 million in security deposits to cover overdue rent from five tenants in the most recent quarter.

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Rivian turns red on the year, squeezed by a recall and the looming end of the EV tax credit

Shares of EV maker Rivian are down more than 5% on Friday following the company’s recall of 24,214 vehicles due to a software issue. The stock move erases Rivian’s year-to-date gain and turns the company negative on the year.

Rivian’s 2025 model year R1S and R1T are affected by the defect, which was identified after a vehicle’s hands-free highway assist software failed to identify another vehicle on the road, causing a low-speed collision. Rivian said it’s released an over-the-air update to fix the issue.

The recall marks Rivian’s fifth this year, affecting nearly 70,000 of its vehicles.

Rivian’s shares are down more than 20% from their 2025 high, which came prior to the passage of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.” Through the legislation, the $7,500 EV tax credit is set to expire at the end of the month.

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Moderna, Pfizer dip after WaPo reports Trump officials’ plan to link Covid vaccines to child deaths

Vaccine makers are falling after The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration plans to link the coronavirus vaccine to 25 child deaths.

Moderna and Pfizer, the two companies who sell the vaccine in the US, fell by more than 5% and 2%, respectively. The coronavirus vaccine is virtually the only revenue driver for Moderna, while Pfizer has a larger and more diverse portfolio.

Trump officials to link child deaths to covid shots, alarming career scientists

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RH slips after missing Q2 estimates and trimming its outlook amid cost pressure

Restoration Hardware shares dropped Friday morning after the luxury furniture brand missed Q2 estimates and tightened its full-year outlook.

Adjusted earnings per share came in at $2.93, below the Street’s estimate of $3.21. Revenue was $899.2 million, also missing analysts’ forecast of $905 million.

RH now expects full-year revenue growth of 9% to 11%, down from prior guidance of 10% to 13%, as margins get squeezed by tariffs and weakness in the housing market. Wall Street had been looking for about 10% growth this year.

The retailer is taking steps to blunt cost pressures, including shifting sourcing away from China. RH expects receipts to fall from 16% in Q1 to 2% in Q4, with vendors absorbing a meaningful portion of the tariff impact. RH is also boosting US manufacturing capacity in North Carolina and pushing back a new concept launch to next spring.

RH shares are down about 43% year to date.

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Super Micro rises as the company begins shipments of Nvidia Blackwell chips

Super Micro Computer jumped over 6% in premarket trading on Friday after the company announced it has started shipping “Plug-and-Play (PnP)-ready” racks powered by Nvidia’s new Blackwell Ultra chips, giving data center customers a ready-made option to scale up their AI infrastructure.

The rollout enables what SMCI calls “turn-key day-one” operations, with the entire racks preassembled and tested to work out of the box.

“Data center customers face many AI infrastructure challenges: complex network topology and cabling, power delivery, and thermal management,” CEO Charles Liang said. “Through Supermicro Data Center Building Block Solutions with our expertise in on-site deployment, we enable turn-key delivery of the highest-performance AI platform — critical for customers seeking to invest in cutting-edge technology.”

The company says the new system’s performance jumps up to 7.5x over Nvidia’s previous-generation chips. It’s also designed to run more efficiently, using less power and water while taking up less floor space, cutting the overall operating costs by 20%, according to the statement.

The launch comes after a rocky August, when SMCI’s shares plunged on weaker-than-expected quarterly results and management trimmed its annual revenue target.

Investors in Super Micro have endured much volatility this year, as the company has failed to deliver on multiple occasions. Even so, the shares are up nearly 50% year to date.