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Blue Chip

Corona’s massive “growth” opportunity

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You want more than booze and beer… and Corona wants to make sure you are getting that. Constellation Brands, the maker of Corona, is dropping $4 billion to increase its stake in Canopy Growth, a marijuana company. Their stake increased from 10% to 38%, and they still have the option to purchase a controlling share of over 50%.

 

Good news for Canopy… because this news sent shares upward by 25%. And yes, this is a legit company listed on the New York Stock Exchange – not just a guy that grows in his backyard shed. However, shares of Constellation Brands were down 6% following the announcement. Nevertheless, Constellation CEO Rob Sands sees this deal as possibly the company’s “most significant growth opportunity” over the next decade (pun intended?).

 

Not just for smoking… and Constellation will be looking to launch cannabis-based alcoholic beverages. Canopy Growth CEO Bruce Linton envisions cannabis, no-calorie drinks that can fight depression – so a drink that makes you skinny and happy. Regardless, it is widely anticipated that marijuana will eventually be legalized in the United States. With this expectation, Constellation and Canopy will be getting to work now to fuel our bad habits later..

snoop dog

Blue Chip

Now you CAN have breakfast at Tiffany’s

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Tiffany’s is changing things up… and spending millions to renovate its flagship store in New York City. The purpose of this renovation is to appeal to the younger crowd of customers – mostly millennials. Getting millennials in the door is essential, of course, because many of them are at the age where people get married and can sorta, kinda, but not really, afford an engagement ring from Tiffany.

 

You can also have breakfast at Tiffany’s… because last year, the company opened up the Blue Box Café. The restaurant is on the fourth floor of the 10-story flagship store. The café has been a big hit – and probably elicits at least one IG post per visit.

 

Fitting in with the youngins… is working for Tiffany and the company’s stock is up 25% this year. Investors are enjoying the renovations, restaurant, and endorsements by young stars like A$AP Ferg. However, we’ll have to wait until 2021 for the flagship store to be ready – but the anticipation is killing us!

Mid caps

Chipotle is fixing their people

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Here is how Chipotle will fix… poisoning their customers in hoards. CEO Brian Niccol announced that the company will be retraining every Chipotle employee on food safety. If you are wondering how many people will be receiving this training, it is in the ballpark of 70,000.

 

Food safety will be on the final exam… because Chipotle will also be testing employees to make sure they know what they need to know. This is good news because in 2016 the company quietly shut down all stores for a few hours to talk about food safety. In 2018, rather than a short discussion, employees will be trained not to poison you.

 

A zero-tolerance policy… is what Niccol is instituting and that may be the company’s only option at this point. The policy means employees that do not follow food safety standards will be terminated immediately. And if you are a real risk-taker, consider visiting Chipotle once again – we hear that the company has added bacon and nachos to the menu. Also, please let us know how you are feeling

Mid caps

Nordstrom is raking in the ‘racks’

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Since everyone gets compared to Amazon… here is another Seattle-based company that can move merch online. That company is Nordstrom, and their second-quarter results beat Wall Street expectation by a long shot. Online sales led the surge and accounted for one-third of the company’s overall sales. Overall, digital sales were up 23%.

 

Everything is going great… because online sales are booming and brick-and-mortar sales are also doing well on their own. Overall revenue for the retailer jumped more than 7%. These results are worth bragging about, and the company must be happy that they decided against going private last March. After the earnings release, shares of Nordstrom were up 10% in after-hours trading.

 

Here’s how everyone else is doing… including Macy’s which had lackluster sales growth and brought Nordstrom down with them after the announcement. However, similar to Nordstrom, Walmart reported strong digital growth. Is it possible that digital sales and brick-and-mortar presence are the paths to the promise land?