The Weight-Loss Revolution Is Just Getting Started

Bearish snacks and bullish airlines... A case of missing the big picture... The market for weight-loss drugs... This medicine could save your life... What the mainstream media is still getting wrong... Bearish snacks and bullish airlines... I (Corey McLaughlin) was driving around late last year listening to a financial radio show. The host and a […] [Stansberry Research Logo] Delivering World-Class Financial Research Since 1999 [Stansberry Digest] Bearish snacks and bullish airlines... A case of missing the big picture... The market for weight-loss drugs... This medicine could save your life... What the mainstream media is still getting wrong... --------------------------------------------------------------- Bearish snacks and bullish airlines... I (Corey McLaughlin) was driving around late last year listening to a financial radio show. The host and a commentator were talking about a suddenly popular subject – weight-loss drugs. Specifically, they were discussing what they thought Mr. Market was implying about two of the consequences of these new-age drugs... They said shares of Hershey (HSY) – which were down about 30% at the time from a previous high – might be hurting because the drugs would lead more people to eat less chocolate and snacks that the company makes. That sounded like a reasonable risk to consider. But then the pair said that commercial airlines might benefit from the adoption of weight-loss drugs, evidently citing a Wall Street analyst's report that at least one airline could save $80 million per year in fuel costs if each passenger lost at least 10 pounds. I chuckled to myself, but they were serious. And what I didn't hear was the most important part of the story... We knew something they didn't... First, the skyrocketing price of cocoa, unmentioned in the show, played a large role in the performance of Hershey's shares. Earlier this year, the company laid off 5% of its staff citing historic cocoa prices and inflation. As I said on the Stansberry Investor Hour [in October]( the sell-off presented a buying opportunity in a longtime favorite stock of our research team and founder Porter Stansberry. Second, even in the off chance that every commercial airline passenger wanted to lose 10 pounds, the odds were incredibly slim that every would-be passenger could even get access to these weight-loss drugs. We knew this because Stansberry Venture Technology editor Dave Lashmet has been researching these drugs for years. He has written extensively about them in his newsletter and here in the Digest. The big picture... It has been several months since that radio show... and I haven't heard a similar discussion since. The bullish case for airlines and the bearish case for snack-makers was a popular thought for a week or so in the financial media, then it went away, per usual. (The host and commentator would have been better off talking about the challenges facing aircraft manufacturer Boeing (BA) and what that might mean for the airline industry.) To find the big weight-loss-drug winners... you need to look at the supply-and-demand picture. I first heard Dave talk about the obesity epidemic in the developed world in March 2020, just before the pandemic lockdowns, and he'd been following it for years already. Clearly, it's a problem. Back then, Dave shared this chart at one of our editors' conferences, showing the percentage of state populations considered obese in the mid-1990s compared with 2016... What I didn't fully appreciate at the time was just how deeply rooted the epidemic is – and how long it will take to untangle, if at all. That became clear when I spoke with Dave later that year. (You can find our conversation published [here]( and [here]( We talked about how diet and cultural influences going back decades played a major role. As he said... We can use 1986 as an example... We would have less than 1% morbid obesity and somewhere around 6% to 7% BMI [Body Mass Index] over 30. What we've seen today is what was less than 10% is over 40% and what was less than 1% is more than 6%. So it's basically gotten five times more extreme and has exploded like an epidemic. The costs are extraordinary. One reason costs are extraordinary is, once people hit 65, everyone has to pay their medical care. More than half of Americans hitting 65 are obese. Obesity among seniors is what everyone has to pay for. What's the cost of obesity? More joint damage, more risk of Type 2 diabetes, Type 2 diabetes drugs, dialysis machines, being driven to your dialysis machine appointment, and cardiovascular effects, and the fact that you have to go into managed care or nursing homes quicker. It's not just an individual burden. It's an individual burden until you're 64. As soon as you're 65, it's a national health crisis. It was clear that the "winners" of this health crisis would be the companies providing solutions to the epidemic... drugs that could be the "cure" for obesity. And these drugs were closer than many people realized... Tracking the story... In 2020, Dave "gave away" Novo Nordisk (NVO) – maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy – as a free pick to anyone who tuned in to a special presentation to learn about his research. [A year later]( the company launched Wegovy after getting U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval as a treatment for obesity... The stock gained more traction and mainstream media attention last summer, when trial data showed Wegovy reduced the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 20%, opening the door for it to be more widely prescribed. Dave covered that [here](. But Dave and the Stansberry's Investment Advisory team had been tracking the drug for even longer... They first recommended owning NVO shares in Stansberry's Investment Advisory in December 2019, when the stock traded for less than $60 per share, or $30 split adjusted for today. Shares are up around 370% since, as this story has continued to develop. In a June 2022 Digest titled "[The Beginning of the End of the Obesity Epidemic]( Dave wrote a boots-on-the-ground report from an American Diabetes Association ("ADA") conference in New Orleans about another weight-loss drug... You see, Eli Lilly (LLY) had shared new trial results... In a trial of 2,500 volunteers, 625 obese patients who took a daily, 10-milligram dose of the drug Tirzepatide lost an average of 44 pounds over 18 months. Dave wrote... Only about 3% of participants quit the trial for side effects. Most people who quit the study were in the placebo group, leaving because they sensed the "drug" wasn't working for them. Again, 97% of participants stayed on Tirzepatide, even before they knew the clinical data we just showed to you. It was that obvious to them that this drug was working. This isn't a case where the drug's safety is a question mark. This large study proved that it's both effective and safe. The real problem, Dave said, would be keeping up with demand... And overall, that's a good problem for Eli Lilly... We learned at ADA that if current trends of the obesity epidemic continue, more than half of adult Americans will be overweight by 2030. More to the point, 25% of American adults will be morbidly obese by 2030. Given a population of 260 million American adults, that's 65 million people who will need this drug domestically. Add another 100 million extremely overweight people in Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan by 2030. In other words, the biggest problem Eli Lilly will have with this drug is in supplying it. Cha-ching. This dynamic is similar to Nvidia's (NVDA) AI technology. Companies are desperate to get their hands on it, but there's too much demand and not enough supply. That's a good thing for Nvidia, which keeps raising profit expectations. These drugs could help hundreds of millions of people... Here's what most people don't understand: Supply of these weight-loss drugs remains relatively low. Drugmakers can't keep up with growing demand. Again, this is a good problem to have. And it's a bigger story than people maybe eating less chocolate, or lighter airplanes at some point in the future. As Dave told me last year... There are 100 million obese American adults. There's literally no way to serve that many people... so food demand is not dropping any time soon. In other words, we're still in the early adoption stage... many people who want the drugs still can't get them. Dave plans to write more about this topic in this Friday's Digest. So stay tuned. But in the meantime... A misunderstood story... As I mentioned yesterday, Stansberry Research employee Ken Millstone is sharing a personal story about trying these weight-loss drugs. Ken says the medicine saved his life. It was well worth the two and a half hours he drove to get it... and the calls he had to make to 10 different pharmacies before he could get a prescription filled... to help him attack the "demon [he] could never slay." As Ken says, he was finding success in nearly every other area of his life, but he couldn't get over this "constant burden," no matter what he tried. But Ken thinks his experience could be replicated by millions of Americans. However, this market is still misunderstood... making for one of the biggest investing stories, by far, of the next decade or more. In [this free video]( Ken details the struggles he has faced with his health, where he's at now, and what he says the mainstream media and most investors are overlooking about the weight-loss-drug story. As he says... I'm telling you my deeply personal story because I want you to see how much this matters... to real people... And because I hope it can help you understand the real stakes here – and real potential – in a way that the parade of snarky trend stories about celebrities and the ladies of the Upper East Side never could. Tune in and you'll not only hear Ken's story, but you'll also learn more about what Ken says are "the two most important investments on Earth for profiting from this revolution," for free. You'll also get a chance to access all of Dave's weight-loss-drug research at a steep discount and lean how Dave finds big winners, consistently. (Stansberry Venture Technology subscribers can find all of Dave's research [here]( Dave's research in our elite Stansberry Venture Technology newsletter on a variety of breakthroughs is unmatched in our company or industry. Trust me, we're only scratching the surface here. Dave was the first Stansberry Research analyst that our founder Porter Stansberry hired back in 1999... and Dave has several of the top stock picks in our Hall of Fame, including his buy recommendation of Nvidia back in 2016 when it traded for less than $50 per share. Since launching Venture Technology in 2014, Dave has recommended more than 30 stocks that have doubled or more. He's also the reason why Ken discovered the medical breakthrough that he says saved his life. [Click here to get the full story now](. In this week's Stansberry Investor Hour, Dan and I welcome True Wealth editor Brett Eversole to the show. He tells us why he believes the bullish trends in the market today are likely to continue... shares a few ticker symbols he likes... and more... P.S. We're also a video podcast now! [Click here to watch]( this entire episode right now. For more free video content, [subscribe to our Stansberry Research YouTube channel](... and you can also continue to listen to the audio version of Investor Hour via Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. --------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended Links: [Stansberry Research Employee: 'This Technology Saved My Life']( It happens with every great technology: There is a period when it's "cool" to bash the world-changing tech as a "fad" – or worse. (Critics said cars would NEVER replace the tried-and-true horse.) And that's happening right now, creating possibly the biggest wealth opportunity in half a century. Today, a Stansberry Research employee is stepping forward with the REAL story. It's easily the most personal and eye-opening message [we've ever shared](. --------------------------------------------------------------- [Federal Reserve Orders Crypto Banking 'Reset']( It's connected to the massive crypto bull market playing out as we speak... and it's backed by at least 41 banks and the U.S. Treasury. As it plays out, your life could change in ways that'll surprise you. [Click here for the full story](. --------------------------------------------------------------- New 52-week highs (as of 3/12/24): ABB (ABBNY), American Financial (AFG), Arhaus (ARHS), BlackLine (BL), Brown & Brown (BRO), Colgate-Palmolive (CL), Pacer U.S. Cash Cows 100 Fund (COWZ), Dow (DOW), iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex China Fund (EMXC), Enterprise Products Partners (EPD), IQVIA (IQV), JPMorgan Chase (JPM), KraneShares MSCI Emerging Markets ex China Index Fund (KEMX), Lennar (LEN), Linde (LIN), VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat Fund (MOAT), MSA Safety (MSA), Motorola Solutions (MSI), NVR (NVR), Oracle (ORCL), O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY), Procter & Gamble (PG), Phillips 66 (PSX), Rithm Capital (RITM), RenaissanceRe (RNR), SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Value Fund (SPYV), ProShares Ultra S&P 500 (SSO), Stellantis (STLA), Stryker (SYK), Tenaris (TS), ProShares Ultra Financials (UYG), Veeva Systems (VEEV), Vanguard S&P 500 Fund (VOO), Waste Management (WM), and Walmart (WMT). We'll eschew the mailbag today. We're still working on a few replies to good questions that have come in lately and will share them soon... In the meantime, if you have a question you'd like to see answered, as always, send it to feedback@stansberryresearch.com. All the best, Corey McLaughlin Baltimore, Maryland March 13, 2024 --------------------------------------------------------------- Stansberry Research Top 10 Open Recommendations Top 10 highest-returning open positions across all Stansberry Research portfolios Stock Buy Date Return Publication Analyst MSFT Microsoft 11/11/10 1,362.6% Retirement Millionaire Doc MSFT Microsoft 02/10/12 1,319.1% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter wstETH Wrapped Staked Ethereum 02/21/20 1,315.2% Stansberry Innovations Report Wade ADP Automatic Data Processing 10/09/08 888.4% Extreme Value Ferris WRB W.R. Berkley 03/16/12 782.5% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter BTC/USD Bitcoin 01/16/20 648.1% Stansberry Innovations Report Wade BRK.B Berkshire Hathaway 04/01/09 618.0% Retirement Millionaire Doc HSY Hershey 12/07/07 482.3% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter AFG American Financial 10/12/12 450.3% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter NVO Novo Nordisk 12/05/19 384.8% Stansberry's Investment Advisory Gula Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 10 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the model portfolio of any Stansberry Research publication. The buy date reflects when the editor recommended the investment in the listed publication, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if a security is still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber to that publication and refer to the most recent portfolio. --------------------------------------------------------------- Top 10 Totals 5 Stansberry's Investment Advisory Porter/Gula 2 Retirement Millionaire Doc 2 Stansberry Innovations Report Wade 1 Extreme Value Ferris --------------------------------------------------------------- Top 5 Crypto Capital Open Recommendations Top 5 highest-returning open positions in the Crypto Capital model portfolio Stock Buy Date Return Publication Analyst wstETH Wrapped Staked Ethereum 12/07/18 2,291.8% Crypto Capital Wade BTC/USD Bitcoin 11/27/18 1,828.9% Crypto Capital Wade ONE/USD Harmony 12/16/19 1,355.9% Crypto Capital Wade POLYX/USD Polymesh 05/19/20 1,101.4% Crypto Capital Wade MATIC/USD Polygon 02/25/21 957.6% Crypto Capital Wade Please note: Securities appearing in the Top 5 are not necessarily recommended buys at current prices. The list reflects the best-performing positions currently in the Crypto Capital model portfolio. The buy date reflects when the recommendation was made, and the return shows its performance since that date. To learn if it's still a recommended buy today, you must be a subscriber and refer to the most recent portfolio. --------------------------------------------------------------- Stansberry Research Hall of Fame Top 10 all-time, highest-returning closed positions across all Stansberry portfolios Investment Symbol Duration Gain Publication Analyst Nvidia^* NVDA 5.96 years 1,466% Venture Tech. Lashmet Microsoft^ MSFT 12.74 years 1,185% Retirement Millionaire Doc Band Protocol crypto 0.32 years 1,169% Crypto Capital Wade Terra crypto 0.41 years 1,164% Crypto Capital Wade Inovio Pharma.^ INO 1.01 years 1,139% Venture Tech. Lashmet Seabridge Gold^ SA 4.20 years 995% Sjug Conf. Sjuggerud Frontier crypto 0.08 years 978% Crypto Capital Wade Binance Coin crypto 1.78 years 963% Crypto Capital Wade Nvidia^* NVDA 4.12 years 777% Venture Tech. Lashmet Intellia Therapeutics NTLA 1.95 years 775% Amer. Moonshots Root ^ These gains occurred with a partial position in the respective stocks. * The two partial positions in Nvidia were part of a single recommendation. Editor Dave Lashmet closed the first leg of the position in November 2016 for a gain of about 108%. Then, he closed the second leg in July 2020 for a 777% return. And finally, in May 2022, he booked a 1,466% return on the final leg. Subscribers who followed his advice on Nvidia could've recorded a total weighted average gain of more than 600%. You have received this e-mail as part of your subscription to Stansberry Digest. If you no longer want to receive e-mails from Stansberry Digest [click here](. Published by Stansberry Research. You’re receiving this e-mail at {EMAIL}. 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