After notching two straight days of gains, on Wednesday marijuana stocks again obeyed gravity by falling Earthward.
The catalyst was a steep quarterly net loss from…
Aphria (NASDAQ:APHA), which not only pulled down that stock by 17% but also peers Aurora Cannabis (NYSE:ACB), Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC), and Curaleaf (OTC:CURL.F), down a respective 9%, 4%, and 3% in late afternoon trading.
Aphria’s fourth quarter prominently featured a heavy bottom-line loss of 98.8 million Canadian dollars ($73.9 million). That’s in stark contrast to the modest profit (CA$5.7 million, or $4.3 million) it booked in in the third quarter and far worse than analysts had estimated.
Although much of it was due to what are basically accounting moves (coronavirus-related impairment charges and a revaluation of convertible debentures), it starkly illustrates the persistent difficulty marijuana companies have in simply turning a net profit.
On top of that, Aphria filed the regulatory paperwork to float up to CA$100 million ($75 million) worth of new stock. Dilutive stock issues are all too common in the marijuana business, and like those constant bottom-line losses, investors are losing patience with them.
There were positive aspects of Aphria’s fourth quarter, such as…
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