Cannabis stocks were down overall Monday, after Jefferies & Co. jumped into the sector with initiations of nine pot producers and called Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Canopy Growth Corp. the cream of the cannabis crop.
Overall, Jefferies labeled five of the companies a buy: Aurora ACB, +4.35% ACB, +4.16% , CannTrust Holdings Inc. TRST, -5.63% , Organigram Holdings Inc. OGI, +1.29% , Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. TGOD, +2.71% TGODF, +2.46% and Flowr Corp. FLWPF, +2.36% Two companies received hold ratings — Canopy CGC, -1.68% WEED, -1.61% and Emerald Health Therapeutics Inc. EMH, -0.26% — while Cronos Group Inc. CRON, -7.53% CRON, -7.01% and Hexo Corp. HEXO, -4.10% HEXO, -3.23% were labeled as “underperform,” the equivalent of a sell rating.
Bennett wrote that Aurora, which received a $12 price target, and Canopy, which was initiated with a $64 price target, are the “best placed to dominate on a global basis in the years ahead.” Canopy’s hold rating was based on his opinion that the market’s valuation “has appropriately captured this strong positioning,” but he sees room for growth in Aurora. He especially likes how the company has positioned itself to eventually enter the U.S. market, which he believes is “yet to be fully appreciated” by the market.
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“The U.S. is the world’s biggest cannabis market,” Bennett wrote in a piece on the entire sector, while noting that cannabis is still federally illegal on the federal level and all pot companies can do is position themselves for a U.S. entry. “If any cannabis co. wants to claim large cap or even megacap future status, they need to have a strong position in the U.S.”
Cronos shares had the biggest move of the bunch Monday morning, falling more than 5%. Jefferies analyst Owen Bennett wrote that he has “not been overly impressed” with the company’s early performance in the Canadian recreational-marijuana sales market.
“Flower capacity could be limiting, its main recreational brand has a questionable target audience in our view, early consumer reviews of said brand do not stand out, and little infrastructure appears to be in place for the derivative market, even with the Altria MO, +0.85% support,” Bennett wrote while giving Cronos a $17 price target. Bennett did say that Cronos is positioned well in the medical-marijuana market, especially overseas.
Bennett was harsher on Hexo, specifically calling out its deal with Molson Coors Brewing Co. TAP, -1.19%
“We think there’s a tendency by the market, due to limited financial metrics/industry data, to take any CPG/brand partnership as a validation of a superior business; the deal Hexo signed with Molson is an example,” Bennett wrote. “The reality is Molson didn’t put any capital in, we don’t actually know if Hexo have superior patented water soluble applications to commercialize near term, no current bottling infrastructure appears in place, and we’ve no idea about their extraction capacity to supply the beverages.”
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The CannTrust rating arrived as the pot producer’s shares began trading Tuesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CTST CTST, -8.88% . Bennett said the listing “could drive attractive 12-month re-rating as more large investors become aware of the story.”
After the bell Monday, medical-marijuana company GW Pharmaceuticals Holdings PLC GWPH, -0.31% is scheduled to report quarterly earnings. Reporting later this week are MedMen Enterprises Inc. MMNFF, +3.24% and Green Growth Brands Inc. GGBXF, -1.87% , which is making a hostile bid for Aphria Inc. APHA, -4.84% APHA, -4.21%
Overall, the sector was down in Monday trading, with the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences HMMJ, -0.89% declining slightly less than 1% and the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ, -1.26% falling a bit more.