Companies and Brands

Cannabis Companies Scare Off Short Sellers

Chris Lange

Published: January 13, 2020 8:50 am

Last Updated: January 30, 2020 11:19 am

Cannabis stocks had a huge showing on Wall Street last year. In fact, most of the news flow surrounding these stocks had investors pouring money into them. Some of the stocks even doubled or tripled in value.

Although a fair number of these companies are based outside the United States, many of them trade on U.S. indexes. Marijuana is still illegal within U.S. borders on a federal level, but with Canada legalizing weed back in October of 2018, many believe that the United States will follow in the near future.

Many investors are focused on getting the jump on the cannabis industry, but they aren’t alone. With this increased speculation, short sellers have plenty of room to play with whether some prices might be overly inflated.

The December 31 short interest data have been compared with the previous figures, and short interest in most of these selected marijuana stocks decreased.

Short interest in Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC) decreased to 45.30 million shares from the previous 46.33 million. The stock was trading at $20.54 Monday morning, within a 52-week range of $13.81 to $52.74.

Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY) short interest fell to 7.61 million shares from the previous 7.87 million. Shares traded at $15.55, in a 52-week range of $15.01 to $106.00.

The number of Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) shares short increased slightly to 61.18 million from 61.16 million in the previous period. Its shares were trading at $6.79, in a 52-week range of $6.04 to $25.10.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) saw its short interest increase to 171.21 million shares from 155.95 million in the prior period. The stock was trading at $1.65. The 52-week range is $1.65 to $10.32.

Hexo Corp.’s (NYSE: HEXO) short interest fell to 31.33 million shares from the previous 33.65 million. The stock was trading at $1.34. The 52-week range is $1.25 to $8.40.

Short interest in Aphria Inc. (NYSE: APHA) decreased to 30.94 million from the previous 33.68 million. The stock was trading at $4.94, and its 52-week range is $3.76 to $10.95.