US: MSOs report earnings as price compression weighs on cannabis market

The earnings cycle for U.S. cannabis's biggest operators is mostly complete, with some of the largest and most renowned companies releasing their fourth quarter and full year 2025 results. Green Thumb Industries, Trulieve Cannabis, Curaleaf, and Cresco Labs have all reported their results, and while the story for each company is different, there are some underlying dynamics that run through all of them. All in all, revenue growth seems to have slowed down, gross margins are holding up but under pressure, and cash flow has become the primary measure of health. The picture that comes out is one of an industry that has matured and stepped into a more complicated phase. The big year of M&As may have ended, as success now seems to depend more on operational discipline than expansion.

Top line
Green Thumb reported fourth quarter revenue of $311.1 million, up 5.7% year over year, capping a full year at $1.2 billion, a 3.4% annual increase. Trulieve came in at $293 million for Q4, a 3% year-over-year decline, with full year revenue also at $1.2 billion, essentially flat compared to 2024. Curaleaf posted Q4 net revenue of $333 million, up 2% year over year and 5% sequentially. Cresco Labs reported Q4 revenue of $162 million, for a full year total of $656 million.

Green Thumb's CEO Ben Kovler acknowledged the constraint openly in the company's press release: "The Green Thumb team delivered record fourth-quarter revenue of $311 million, up 5.7% year-over-year, capping a year in which full-year revenue grew 3.4% to $1.2 billion despite ongoing price compression."

The phrase "ongoing price compression" recurs across multiple filings. Green Thumb explicitly warned that it expects first quarter 2026 revenues to be "sequentially down mid-single digits due to continued pricing pressure and seasonality." The usual challenges of USA growers seem to be the cause. Cannabis is still a Schedule I substance under federal law, interstate commerce remains illegal, forcing operators to maintain separate, duplicated supply chains in every state they operate. That keeps costs high, while adult-use market saturation in mature states keeps prices low.

Margins
Trulieve's 60% gross margin stands apart from the rest of the field, a function of its Florida dominance and deep vertical integration. With 94% of revenue coming from retail and over four million square feet of cultivation and processing capacity in the U.S., Trulieve has built a structure that is difficult and expensive for competitors to replicate. CEO Kim Rivers said: "We finished the year strong, winning a conditional license in Texas and repositioning our debt. With rescheduling on the horizon, Trulieve is carrying the momentum into 2026, prioritizing expanded access, loyal customers, branded products and growth initiatives."

Green Thumb's gross margin came in at 45.4% for Q4 and 48.9% for the full year, down from 53.7% and 52.9% respectively in 2024, with the company attributing the decline primarily to price compression. Curaleaf reported a Q4 adjusted gross profit margin of approximately 49%, with the full year expected around 50%. Cresco held an adjusted gross margin of 50.2% for the full year.

The numbers seem to draw a line between operators that laser focused on their strongest markets, and those who expanded aggressively. Trulieve bet hard on Florida, to the point that it even donated $5 million to a adult-use campaign in the state.

Curaleaf's international bet
The one divergent narrative belongs to Curaleaf. While every other major MSO is essentially a U.S. story, Curaleaf has quietly become a multinational cannabis company. International revenue hit $51 million in Q4 2025, up 65% year over year. For context, Curaleaf's international segment grew from $105.6 million for all of 2024 to a run rate that substantially exceeds that figure in 2025, driven by expansion across 15 countries in Europe and beyond.

Chairman and CEO Boris Jordan described 2025 as a year of momentum: "We closed 2025 with clear momentum, delivering fourth-quarter revenue of $333 million. Revenue increased 5% sequentially and 2% year over year, bolstered by a broad-based return to growth." Whether international becomes a genuine growth engine or remains a hedge against U.S. stagnation is still an open question, the segment carries its own regulatory complexity, and profitable operations at scale in Europe remain elusive for the sector as a whole.

The structural ceiling
Across four earnings reports, the same constraint surfaces in every one: the U.S. cannabis market has hit a structural ceiling that no amount of operational excellence can fully offset. Trulieve's Kim Rivers referenced rescheduling directly in her management commentary. Green Thumb's Ben Kovler went further in the Q4 release: "While cannabis reform in D.C. continues to stall, we have the flexibility to act and be aggressive in what we believe is a major new consumer category."