Innovation Accelerator Playbook

When you signed up for The Oxford Communiqué, you received several reports with some of my best picks as part of my Innovation Accelerator Playbook.

The market has had its ups and downs since then, but it has generally been on the upswing. Major indexes, like the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index, hit their pre-pandemic highs and, despite recent corrections, are considerably higher than they were in March 2020. 

The growing availability of COVID-19 vaccinations and loosening of quarantine restrictions in the United States and around the world have allowed battered economies to speed up their recoveries considerably.

This report is an update on all of those companies. And there is one very exciting development that we’ll start with…

Dicerna Pharmaceuticals

At the start of 2021, things were going well for Dicerna Pharmaceuticals. The company’s GalXC technology had positioned it to take advantage of the rise of mRNA vaccines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.  

The company experienced a downturn in August 2021, but I remained confident in the company’s long-term potential… And I wasn’t the only one.  

Because, in November 2021, it was announced the company would be acquired by pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk (NYSE: NVO) at $38.25 per share in a $3.3 BILLION deal.  

Novo Nordisk’s mission is to “pioneer scientific breakthroughs, expand access to our medicines, and work to prevent and ultimately cure disease.” 

The Dicerna acquisition helps it take a step forward in that mission. 

Upon that announcement, shares leapt from $21.28 to $38.03, or 78%, overnight.  

That made Dicerna Yahoo Finance’s top gainer for November 18, 2021.  

If you saw a gain like that from your own stake in Dicerna when the deal closed on December 27, 2021, please let us know by emailing us as mailbag@oxfordclub.com. 

Liberty Global

The 10G pioneer  Liberty Global (Nasdaq: LBTYA) went into the end of 2021 with strong third quarter results. And it is continuing the growth it saw in its fantastic 2020...

In the first nine months of 2021, Liberty gained 24,600 new organic customer additions, representing growth of 339.3% altogether...   

Strong demand for connectivity is driving sustained volume growth. It added 266,000 aggregate broadband and postpaid mobile subscribers in the third quarter of 2021 alone.  

That rapid customer growth has seen Liberty Global’s bottom line surge…

Revenue for the first nine months of 2021 topped $8.39 billion. Net cash from operating activities stands at $2.5 billion, and its total liquidity sits comfortably at $5.3 billion.   

Its partnerships have left it in a great position to continue capitalizing on the COVID-19 recovery…

Speaking of, Liberty Global and Telefónica announced a new CEO for their 50-50 joint venture that combines Virgin Media and O2. Lutz Schüler is a 27-year veteran of the telecommunication industry, having previously worked at T-Mobile and O2.   

As of the latest results, that deal closed in June and the integration of O2 is underway…

All that adds up to Liberty Global remaining as strong a pick today as it was in January 2021.  

GrowGeneration

Despite some recent setbacks and stalling, cannabis legalization continues to advance across the United States. And even though talk of federal legalization at the Capitol has slowed down, there’s no question that legalization is inevitable. 

And it’s no wonder GrowGeneration (Nasdaq: GRWG) is still a strong play…

Though, cannabis isn’t the only thing driving its growth. Hydroponics is being adopted for vertical farming around the world. 

GrowGeneration’s latest quarterly results were fantastic. The third quarter of 2021 saw revenue shoot up by 111% to $116 million. Net income for the first nine months of 2021 increased by 342% to $16.8 million, well over the first nine months of 2020’s $3.8 million. 

What’s more, GrowGeneration’s cash reserves are sitting comfortably at just more than $63 million. That war chest will help the company as it expands its operations. It plans to expand its presence to 100 locations by 2023. 

It was closing in on its goal of having 60 stores nationwide as 2021 drew to a close with 58 stores in total, so the company is well on its way to achieving or even exceeding its goal in the next two years.  

While GrowGeneration’s share price has been on a rough ride in 2021 since it hit an all-time high in February 2021, it remains a strong hydroponics play with a very strong balance sheet.  

Cannabis stocks had a rough year across the board. Efforts at federal legalization have stalled, and there was a major sell–off in late summer 2021. Both cooled investors to the sector. But the larger trend of cannabis legalization continues apace…

Federal legalization of cannabis is all but an inevitability at this point. Couple that with the growing popularity of hydroponic farming and GrowGeneration’s rock-solid growth and performance, and you have the stock to profit from both the future of cannabis and the future of farming.  

See this drop in share price as a buying opportunity, not a crash. Cannabis legalization is coming state by state, if not on the federal level. And you now have an opportunity to get into GrowGeneration at a bargain price.

Between that market and vertical farming in increasingly packed urban centers, GrowGeneration’s share price should bounce back and then some.  

GrowGeneration’s strong financial position and rapid growth ensure that it remains one of the strongest growth plays, poised to take advantage of both the cannabis industry and vertical farming. 

iRobot

The pandemic has forced millions of people around the world to spend more time at home.  

And even with many having since returned to their offices, COVID-19 has shown managers the world over that most employees work just as well from home as they do from the office.  

People enjoy the freedom and flexibility that working from home offers so a return to the pre-pandemic 100% in-office work setup is unlikely now, almost two years into COVID-19.  

However, working from home has created problems of its own. Many people who now work from home for part or full time want to keep their new home offices clean but struggle to find the time...  

That’s where iRobot (Nasdaq: IRBT) and its line of Roomba robot vacuums come in. While many companies struggled in 2020 as COVID-19 cut in on sales, iRobot did just fine.

And its growth, spurred by the pandemic, continued into 2021 and likely will continue this year… 

In the third  quarter of 2021, iRobot brought in more than $440.7 million in revenue, up 7% over its $413.1 million in the third quarter of 2020. For the first nine months of 2021, iRobot raked in $1.1 billion in revenue, up 25% over revenue in the first nine months of 2020.

While the company is down from its pandemic highs of early 2021, it has nothing to do with the strength of its business. It relies on East Asia for many of the components in its robots, and supply chain issues within that region have hit iRobot’s production capabilities.   

Even so, management expects $1.8 billion in revenue this year. Even better, iRobot expects revenue to grow to $2.6 billion annually by 2024, which would represent a compound annual growth rate of 16% to 18%. And that can be attributed to the company’s efforts to shift to a software-focused business model.   

The company is positioning itself to be a leader in a new robots–as-a–service industry. Management pictures “robot leases,” through which a monthly subscription gets customers improved software and even hardware upgrades throughout their ownership period.   

Despite supply chain headwinds, iRobot is one of the best under-the-radar companies on the market today. Its revenue is projected to continue growing apace, its business remains strong and iRobot is as strong today as it was at the end of last year.   

NeoGenomics

Despite the recent pullback in its share price, NeoGenomics (Nasdaq: NEO) remains a strong pick in The Oxford Communiqué portfolio and I’m still very confident in it. 

In fact, the pullback represents an excellent buying opportunity to enter the stock or expand your position. Now on to the company itself…

2020 saw NeoGenomics’ revenue grow 9% to $444 million. Its patient count hit 435,000 annually, and the company became the first in breast cancer lab testing. Not to mention that its cash and cash equivalents climbed to $250.6 million.  

2021 saw that growth continue. Consolidated revenue for the first nine months of 2021 topped $358 million, up $40 million over the first nine months of 2020. Net income over the same period came out to $33.4 million over a $11.2 million loss in the first nine months of 2020.  

NeoGenomics’ war chest also grew to $340.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, up 29.5% over the first nine months of 2020.  

And the stage is set for further growth. The cancer testing market has some serious wind in its sails and is expected to grow 6% to 8% annually. That’s driven by an aging population and increased cancer survival rates, which lead to follow-up testing.   

On top of that, NeoGenomics signed several new contracts in 2021, totaling $42 million at the end of the second quarter. The company’s total backlog has grown to $238 million, ensuring business for years to come to further fuel growth…

NeoGenomics is a great company that the market has created a buying opportunity for. It’s poised to recover and remain strong for many years to come. 

Novocure

When we last left Novocure (Nasdaq: NVCR), it was quietly revolutionizing cancer treatment under Wall Street’s radar…

It’s still under that radar, but it’s becoming increasingly mind-boggling as to why. It has three treatments in its pipeline that have been approved and has four treatments in late-stage Phase 3 trials. 

At the same time, Novocure’s treatments are seeing more use than ever. It has had 26 consecutive quarters of active patient growth, and it treated more than 22,000 patients in 2021. 

The company’s balance sheet has grown alongside its patient count. Net revenues in 2021 topped $535 million, up 8.2% over the $494.4 million it brought in for 2020. And cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments exceeded $937.7 million for 2021.

Novocure is quietly improving lives around the world. And sooner or later, Wall Street will get wise to it and drive the share price up. If you haven’t bought in yet, now’s your chance…

The Post-COVID-19 Boom Continues…

If the performance of these companies is any indication, the market is well on its way to recovery from the COVID-19 turmoil. We’ve encountered a few stumbling blocks recently, but brief pullbacks in share price are perfectly normal… 

And they can create some fantastic buying opportunities for savvy investors.

The five picks in this report can form the backbone of a post-COVID-19 portfolio, and there is still plenty of time to get in on them if you haven’t already…

The post-COVID-19 boom is still young, and, despite a recent setback, we still have a long way to go before we reach the top. 

Good investing.