Key Takeaways from CannTrust’s Fourth-Quarter Earnings

On March 28, before the market opened, CannTrust (CTST) reported its Q4 2018 and full-year earnings. The company reported top-line growth of 131% to 16.1 million Canadian dollars and year-over-year growth of 120% to 45 million Canadian dollars for fiscal 2018. CannTrust stock was down almost 13% at the market open.

CannTrust sold about 1.6 million grams of dried cannabis equivalent from extracts under the umbrella of its Canadian Medical segment, which increased from just about 0.46 million grams, and dried cannabis of about  378 thousand grams, which increased year-over-year from 296 thousand grams.

However, the company sold medical cannabis at much lower prices compared to a year ago. For example, the company sold medical dried cannabis at 7.1 Canadian dollars per gram in the fourth quarter of 2018 compared to 8.1 Canadian dollars per gram in the fourth quarter of 2017. The company sold extracts for 4.3 Canadian dollars per gram compared to 9.3 Canadian dollars per gram a year ago.

Companies (MJ) like Canopy Growth (WEED), Tilray (TLRY), HEXO (HEXO), and others are increasing their capacity, so prices could face downward pressure.

On the wholesale side, which includes recreational cannabis, CannTrust sold about 1.2 million grams of dried cannabis during the fourth quarter and extracts of about 104 thousand grams.

CannTrust sold its dried cannabis for 4.2 Canadian dollars per gram under the wholesale segment and extracts for 3.9 Canadian dollars per gram. Since this was the first quarter for the wholesale segment sales, there is no comparable available for the corresponding quarter a year ago.