When the calendar flips over to 2018 in a few short weeks, many investors will begin a process of re-evaluating their portfolios, and part of that evaluation includes adding a few intriguing investments with significant growth potential.
Fortunately, 2018 won’t be just any other year; there are several events scheduled throughout the year that could ultimately provide some stocks with huge growth opportunities.
Here are some of those growth candidates.
Canopy Growth Corp. (TSX:WEED) is the first growth stock to consider for 2018. I’ve already mentioned the immense potential of Canopy over the long term, but there are two dates in 2018 that will provide a catalyst for the entire cannabis sector.
January 1 marks the date when California joins a selective few other states in legalizing marijuana for recreational use. The significance of California stems primarily from its market and population size.
California has a population that is greater than all the other states that have already started legalization combined. The legalized market in the U.S. will effectively double in size on January 1, becoming a huge opportunity for distributors and growers. And keep in mind that California already passed laws relating to medicinal marijuana use over two decades ago, meaning that this is a huge, mature, and informed market.
The other date to take note of is July 1, when legalization hits home here in Canada. Domestically, Canopy is the largest player in the market, and agreements on providing supply to national pharmacy chains and provinces are beginning to heat up.
Stars Group (TSX:TSGI)(NASDAQ:TSG) is another great stock for 2018. Stars Group is a software company that caters to the entertainment industry, or, more specifically, online gambling and casino games. There is a massive untapped potential for the online games that Stars Group offers, but the requisite regulatory approvals to operate in new jurisdictions is slow to come by without some external catalyst.
That catalyst will come next summer, as Russia will host the next World Cup. The soccer competition is held every four years and is the largest and most popular sporting event on the planet with over two billion viewers set to watch the 32 best soccer nations on the planet battle it out over the course of a month.
Soccer betting is huge. In some markets in Europe and Asia, the potential revenue opportunity is measured in the hundreds of millions.
During the last major soccer event — the Euros, which were held two years ago — Stars Group (under its former name of Amaya) saw a significant jump in earnings because of the competition and gained entry to several new markets, which, coincidentally, are nearly all represented in the 2018 World Cup.
Cameco Corp. (TSX:CCO)(NYSE:CCJ) might be an odd pick as a growth stock, at least initially. The company has been struggling due to depressed uranium prices and recently announced that it would be shuttering some facilities as a cost-savings and supply-limiting strategy to drive uranium prices up from their multi-year drop to sub-US$20 per pound.
The interesting part here is that one of Cameco’s competitors, which also happens to be the largest producer of uranium on the planet, also announced a series of production cuts for the same reason. Collectively, the two companies are going to provide an over 20% cut to the global market for uranium.
The impact of those cuts should begin to drive the price of uranium higher and, by extension, Cameco’s stock price, which is currently trading at discounted levels.
