Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history. CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes Facebook’s decline in users is likely due to the boom in popularity of the competitor platform TikTok.
Facebook lost daily users for the first time in its 18-year history in the final quarter of 2021, which CEO Mark Zuckerberg believes was caused by the TikTok boom.
The social media giant’s devastating earnings report on Wednesday sent Facebook shares plunging more than 20 percent, wiping more than $200 billion off the company’s market cap and erasing $29 billion from Zuckerberg’s net worth.
Facebook reported a drop of nearly 500,000 in daily logins during the last three months of 2021.
‘People have a lot of choices for how they want to spend their time, and apps like TikTok are growing very quickly,’ Zuckerberg said during an earnings call Wednesday, according to the Washington Post.
Zuckerberg reiterated that Meta – the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – is pushing hard to develop its short-form video Reels in an effort to compete with TikTok.
‘This is why our focus on Reels is so important over the long term,’ he added.
Facebook, which now only has 1.93 billion users logging in each day, also saw its shares plunged more than 20 percent in extended trading on Wednesday after unexpectedly heavy spending on its Metaverse project led to a rare decline in its fourth quarter profit.
Meta saw its stock fall 22.6 percent to $249.90 in after-hours trading, wiping about $200 billion off the company’s market value.
The company heavily invested in its Reality Labs segment – which includes its virtual reality headsets and augmented reality technology – during the final quarter of 2021, accounting for much of the profit decline.
Zuckerberg, who is worth approximately $107 billion, held more than 398 million shares of Meta at the end of 2020, according to Investopedia. Based on his reported holdings, the CEO personally experienced a more than $29 billion loss when the company’s stock fell Wednesday.
Mansion Global | The wild ups and downs of cryptocurrency markets have been near the top financial headlines for months, so it’s perhaps no surprise that a rapidly increasing number of luxury real estate developers and sellers are getting into the game themselves, making properties available for currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and in the process, creating an attention-grabbing hook for their listings.
But the new proliferation of crypto-friendly listings may be a boon to certain buyers, as well, providing a prime opportunity to diversify a portion of their holdings from the volatile world of digital currencies into the traditionally much more stable world of real property.
“We are definitely a fan of digital assets, and the boom and bust cycles are natural,” said Amanda Agati, chief investment officer for the PNC Financial Services Group. “They are [also] one of the most volatile assets on the planet, so the ability to potentially diversify from digital into real assets like property is very attractive.”
For sellers, offering listings for cryptocurrency may significantly broaden the pool of potential buyers, given the number of investors with significant holdings in digital currencies but few liquid assets elsewhere, or even those who have more diversified portfolios but have seen their crypto holdings explode in value since this time last year. Bitcoin, for example, was valued at around $9,200 in mid-July 2020, and is now up more than threefold to around $31,500, as of Thursday afternoon. “A lot of people have created great wealth in the last year with crypto,” said Thomas Duger, vice president of sales at Elegran Real Estate, who is currently marketing a $2.595 million condo near New York City’s Gramercy Park for a seller who is willing to accept Bitcoin.
“The seller is so bullish on cryptocurrency, he thinks this is just the beginning,” Mr. Duger said.
Purchasing property in cryptocurrency isn’t necessarily the right investment move for everyone, however, and in such a new market, buyers would do well to go into transactions with a close eye on the details. Below, what to know if you’re looking to trade in some of your frothy digital currency holdings for good old brick-and-mortar.
A Prime Time to Diversify
While some cryptocurrency die-hards are content to keep their entire holdings staked on the fate of a currency like Dogecoin, other investors with significant digital assets are now strategizing around the most timeless piece of investing wisdom in any year or market: diversify.
“You’re seeing a lot of people that might have put $10,000 into Dogecoin and now they have $10 million,” said Dalton Skach, founder and CEO of Gold Gate, a luxury real estate investment fund manager that recently launched a new fund allowing buyers to invest in property via cryptocurrency. “But they also don’t have any other assets.”
And for buyers with a disproportionate percentage of their overall net worth now represented by digital currency, snapping up a condo in exchange for a portion of their Bitcoin holdings can offer a tidy solution.
The marijuana boom amid the coronavirus pandemic has brought a lot of attention to the sector. Cannabis sales have been on the rise ever since marijuana was deemed an “essential item” during pandemic-related lockdowns. This not only benefited U.S. cannabis companies’ revenue and profits, but also was advantageous for companies indirectly linked to the cannabis sector. With more and more states legalizing medicinal and/or adult-use marijuana, hopes are that sales could keep soaring. The U.S. cannabis market could generate $41 billion in annual sales by 2026, according to BDSA.
Here are two cannabis stocks that are exciting buys for summer 2021. One is a pure-play cannabis company (meaning its main business is the production and sale of cannabis and cannabis-related products) that is climbing to be a top contender in the U.S. market. The other is an unconventional cannabis stock that has no direct involvement with cannabis, but is taking advantage of the marijuana boom.
Trulieve Cannabis is a rising star in the U.S. cannabis space
Florida-based Trulieve Cannabis (OTC: TCNNF) is a vertically integrated multi-state operator. Vertical integration allows the company control over its supply chain, and this has helped it grow tremendously even amid a global crisis.
The company already dominates the medical cannabis market in its home state, operating 78 dispensaries there. Florida only allows medical cannabis, and the company holds 50% of the market share in that state. But after its recent acquisition of Arizona-based Harvest Health & Recreation, the company has plans to expand, and its recent first-quarter results ended March 31 are proof of that.
Revenue grew 102% year over year to $194 million, and adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) came in at $91 million, up 87% from the year-ago period. The company also recorded a 27% year-over-year jump in net profit to $30 million for the quarter. EBITDA measures the operational performance of a company, while net income is the true earnings of a company after all the deductions are made.
Trulieve acquired Harvest Health in May in a $2.1 billion deal that is expected to be completed in the third quarter, subject to shareholder approval. This acquisition will help Trulieve make an entry into the cannabis market in Arizona, which recently legalized recreational pot. This deal will also add Pennsylvania and Maryland dispensaries to Trulieve’s national footprint. All in all, the company will have access to 126 dispensaries in 11 states and a solid presence across much of the U.S.
In 2021, Trulieve expects the combined company to bring in around $1.2 billion in revenue and $461 million in adjusted EBITDA. These strong businesses have combined their resources, capital, and innovative products, and the resulting company could soon become a cannabis powerhouse.
Innovative Industrial Properties offers an indirect entry to the cannabis sector
Marijuana remains federally illegal in the U.S., which can keep many investors from much exposure to the industry. But there’s one real estate investment trust (REIT) that offers an indirect path into the cannabis market. Marijuana’s illegal status can make it hard for U.S. cannabis companies to obtain financial capital, which restricts them from setting up large production facilities. Innovative Industrial Properties(NYSE: IIPR) is a REIT that acquires properties from medical cannabis companies, then leases them back. The cannabis companies get capital, and Innovative Industrial Properties gets revenue.
In its recent first quarter (ended March 31), Innovative’s total revenue saw an exciting jump of 103% year over year to $43 million, and the company made four new acquisitions (three new properties and a land expansion at an existing property) in that time. Its net income also increased to $26 million from $12 million in the year-ago period, and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) rose by 117% to $38 million for the quarter. Since Innovative is a REIT, AFFO is an important measure to determine how much cash is available to be paid out as dividends to shareholders, similar to what net earnings measure for a non-REIT.
And that brings me to one more advantage of owning this stock: its dividend, which at a yield of about 2.9% is nearly double the S&P 500 average. As a REIT, the company is legally bound to pay 90% of its income as dividends; its rising AFFO is proof that it does so consistently, which is at least as important as having a high yield. On June 15, the company announced a 32% year-over-year hike to its quarterly dividend, bringing the payout to $1.40 per share. This marks the 11th dividend increase for the company since it went public in 2016.
Volatility in an emerging industry is common, and the fact that it’s not directly involved with marijuana keeps Innovative Industrial Properties insulated from this, making it a good cannabis-related stock to invest in. Once the drug is federally legalized in the U.S. and cannabis companies can obtain capital from other means, Innovative could face some challenges. But for now, as statewide legalization continues ramping up, Innovative is poised to grow.
Here’s The Marijuana Stock You’ve Been Waiting For A little-known Canadian company just unlocked what some experts think could be the key to profiting off the coming marijuana boom.
And make no mistake – it is coming.
Cannabis legalization is sweeping over North America – 15 states plus Washington, D.C., have all legalized recreational marijuana over the last few years, and full legalization came to Canada in October 2018.
And one under-the-radar Canadian company is poised to explode from this coming marijuana revolution.
Because a game-changing deal just went down between the Ontario government and this powerhouse company…and you need to hear this story today if you have even considered investing in pot stocks.
EarthyRealist.com 