Investors who decided to buy shares of marijuana REIT Innovative Industrial Properties (NYSE:IIPR) five years ago, must now be very pleased with their returns.
IIIP is the first and only publicly traded cannabis-focused real estate investment trust. The company manages a portfolio of real estate properties that it leases to cannabis companies in the U.S. Among its lessees are Trulieve (OTCQX:TCNNF), 4Front Ventures (OTCQX:FFNTF), Parallel, Ascend Wellness (OTCQX:AAWH), Cresco Labs (OTCQX:CRLBF), Green Thumb Industries (OTCQX:GTBIF), TILT Holdings (OTC:TLLTF), Columbia Care (OTC:CCHWF), PharmaCann, Vireo Health, and many more.
Over the last five years, Innovative Industrial Properties stock has outperformed some of the most popular stocks in the world, such as Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX), Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE:BRK), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) and Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).
As of June 30, 2022, IIP owned 111 properties across 20 states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington) representing a total of approximately 8.6 million rentable square feet. The company has committed around $2.4 billion across its portfolio.
IIP Recent Updates
In May, IIP acquired Massachusetts property and entered into a long-term lease with TILT Holdings.
In June the company's board of directors declared a second-quarter 2022 dividend of $1.75 per share of common stock. The dividend is equivalent to an annualized dividend of $7.00 per common share. On the heels of second-quarter dividends, the company closed on the acquisition of a property in Texas and entered into a long-term lease with a subsidiary of Texas Original Holdings, LLC.
Lawsuit
Despite regular dividends and numerous acquisitions, some investors are worried about the valuations that IIP is giving these properties, which has led to a shareholder lawsuit, wrote Green Market Report. The class action complaint alleges that the company’s goal is to be a marijuana company lender rather than a REIT and that the real values of its properties are much lower than Innovative Industrial Properties claims.
Meanwhile, IIP's stock continues to grow.
Here's how the returns break down from June 2017 to the present:
Netflix is up from $149.41 a share to $178.36 for a return of 19.38%;
Berkshire Hathaway is up from $254,700.00 a share to $411,050.00 for a return of 61.39%;
Amazon is up from $48.40 a share to $108.92 for a return of 125.04%;
Alphabet is up from $929.68 a share to $2,234.03 for a return of 140.30%;
Apple is up from $36.01 a share to $139.23 for a return of 286.64%;
And finally, IIP is up from $16.75 per share to $110.65 for a return of 560.60%.
Photo: Courtesy of Esteban Lopez on Unsplash
