What happened
Another day, another decline for Aurora Cannabis (ACB -3.60%) stock.
Earlier this week, we discussed Aurora Cannabis's decision to try to raise another $500 million to keep its business solvent by selling one or more batches of "common shares, preferred shares, warrants, subscription receipts and debt securities" over the next 25 months -- and how investors reacted to this news by selling off the stock.
Yesterday, Aurora made its latest attempt to stop the bleeding, reassuring investors that it remains in "compliance" with its debt covenants and is on course to land toward the high end of its previously announced $60 million to $64 million revenue guidance range for Q1 2021, reports TheFly.com. Furthermore, said management, it's going to land near the high of its 46% to 50% range for "adjusted gross margin before fair value adjustments on cannabis net revenue," and will spend not much more than $40 million on selling, general, and administrative expenses "excluding certain one-time contract and employee termination costs."
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
Investors responded to these assurances by selling off Aurora Cannabis stock by more than 5% in early trading Friday, although the stock has since retraced to about a 2% loss as of 2:10 p.m. EDT.
Why the unexpected lack of enthusiasm? I can't help but think that, after being disappointed time and again by Aurora, investors are looking askance at all the wiggle room Aurora gave itself with phrases like "before fair value adjustments on cannabis net revenue" and "excluding certain one-time contract and employee termination costs."
Now what
On the one hand, Aurora Cannabis still ended up promising investors that it will produce "positive adjusted EBITDA in the second quarter of fiscal 2021."
On the other hand, that's not saying anything good about the next quarter to be reported -- i.e. the first quarter of fiscal 2021 -- the one that Aurora will be reporting next month, and the one to which all the wiggle words above referred.
That's the quarter investors are worried about right now, and I can't say I blame them.
