With U.S. markets closed in observance of Memorial Day, Canadian markets, for the most part, were rather quiet on Monday. However, Canadian cannabis stocks, on the whole, were up modestly over the course of the day, with a few, in particular, seeing decent growth figures.
One of the largest gainers in Canadian markets was Aphria (NYSE: APHA) which was up a respectable 4.5 percent in today’s trading session. This was mainly because of an earlier recommendation made on Friday by a prominent Wall Street analyst.
Owen Bennet, an analyst at Jefferies, gave Aphria a “buy” recommendation and set its target price around 110 percent above it’s Friday price. Since then, Aphria’s stock has surged almost 20 percent on the idea that the company is drastically undervalued.
Shares of Namaste Technologies (CVE: N), a Canadian cannabis penny stock whose shares currently trade at C$0.85, continued its winning streak from earlier last week when it made a few major announcements.
The company, which has often been seen as the “Amazon of cannabis” for its futuristic approach, hired Andrew Wilczynski to join the company’s board, alongside technology futurist Faraaz Jamal as Namaste’s new VP of marketing and strategy.
ICC International Cannabis Corp (CSE: WRLD.U) was also up around 5 percent on Monday after announcing it had secured an exclusive European license for its unique CBD extraction system. The Affinity Alpha Unit as it’s called uses a two-phase process that is able to extract CBD and THC on a massive scale at over ten times the output of traditional extraction technologies.
“The integration of the Affinity Unit across ICC’s global operating units will optimize ICC’s multi-pronged CBD strategy, thereby maximizing rents while cornering high growth consumer segments,” said David Shpilt, CEO of International Cannabis in a statement. “A proprietary two-phase extraction process, equipped with 10x the conventional industry throughput will permit ICC to bring its superior product formulations to market at an expedited rate; further actualizing its first mover reputation across the EU.”
Other significant movers on Monday included Hexo Corp (TSE: HEXO) and Cronos Group (NYSE: CRON), which both were up around 3.3 and 3.5 percent respectively. The later of the two has fallen significantly over the past couple of months, falling 24 percent since it’s high point in March when it announced a $1.8 billion deal with Altria (NYSE: MO).
The biggest loser of the day, however, was a small company not often heard about in the mainstream press. Planet 13 Holdings (CNSX: PLTH) dropped 6.6 percent despite getting an upgraded listing to a more prestigious exchange.
Many market insiders still remain bullish on the stock, which is currently trading at a cheap C$2.7 per share, small for a company worth $360 million in market cap.
The biggest Canadian cannabis stock, such as Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) and Canopy Growth Corp (NYSE: CGC) didn’t move much today, again mainly because of the fact that they also are listed on American exchanges which are closed.
While a quiet day overall, this gave smaller cannabis companies who are only listed on Canadian exchanges a chance to catch the spotlight.