Canopy Growth (CGC -3.01%) was hardly the marijuana stock of the moment on Thursday. The company's stock price dived by 14% on the day, following the release that morning of its Q2 of fiscal 2020 results.
Net revenue for the quarter was 76.6 million Canadian dollars ($57.8 million), down significantly from the Q1 tally of CA$90.5 million ($68.3 million) but well higher than the CA$23.3 million ($17.6 million) the company reaped in Q2 of fiscal 2019. Canopy Growth harvested 40,570 kilos of product, down from the 40,960 kilos of Q1 (year-ago result: 15,217 kilos).
On the bottom line, the company's net loss deepened. It came in at CA$374.6 million ($282.7 million), equating to CA$1.08 ($0.81) per share; the Q1 net loss for Canopy Growth was nearly $CA1.3 billion ($967 million), while in Q2 2019 the net loss was CA$330.6 million ($249.5 million).
Image source: Getty Images.
That performance was significantly worse than analyst expectations. On average, prognosticators tracking the stock were modeling net revenue of CA$90.6 million ($68.4 million) and a per-share net loss of only CA$0.41 ($0.31).
In the official press release detailing the results, Canopy Growth put much of the blame for its performance on external factors. "The last two quarters have been challenging for the Canadian cannabis sector as provinces have reduced purchases to lower inventory levels, retail store openings have fallen short of expectations, and Cannabis 2.0 products are yet to come to market," the company wrote.
It sounded an optimistic note about the future, labeling these collective challenges "a short-term headwind" in the very young cannabis business sector.
"Canopy continues to be best positioned with cash-on-hand, a world-class infrastructure, and a portfolio of intellectual property to deliver sustained, long-term market leadership," the company added.
In terms of sales by category, the expanding market for medical cannabis abroad was a bright spot -- this advanced a robust 72% over Q1 to CA$18 million ($14 million). Business-to-consumer recreational cannabis sales posted a similar dynamic, rising by 24% to CA$13 million ($10 million). Yet the much larger (and critical) business-to-business recreational category suffered a 15% decline to CA$49 million ($37 million).
With today's decline, the company's U.S.-traded stock is now at its lowest level since late 2017. So far this year, it has lost over 40% of its value.
