What happened
GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: GWPH) stock rocketed 77% higher in the first half of 2019 (January through June), according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. It was flat during the holiday-shortened first week of July, so its year-to-date 2019 gain is also about 77%.
For context, the S&P 500 index returned 18.5% in the first six months of the year, and has returned 20.6% so far this year through July 5.
The British biopharmaceutical company develops prescription drugs derived from cannabinoids, chemical substances found in marijuana.
So what
GW Pharmaceuticals stock's year-to-date gain came in the first two months of the year, as shares were up 76.6% over this period. They've mostly traded in a moderately tight trading range since then.
In January, shares surged more than 46%, though there didn't appear to be any specific news to account for this big gain. As I previously wrote:
“We can probably attribute the stock's strong performance [in January] largely to the enthusiasm surrounding the overall cannabis sector. Nearly all cannabis stocks soared in January, with Canadian grower Canopy Growth, the largest cannabis stock by market cap, skyrocketing 82.3%.”