Companies and Brands

Short Sellers Get Even Higher on Cannabis Stocks

Chris Lange

Published: November 12, 2019 8:45 am

Last Updated: March 13, 2020 6:12 pm

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. And with this increased speculation, short sellers have plenty of room to play with whether some prices might be overly inflated.

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

Short interest in Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC) decreased to 39.62 million shares from the previous 41.68 million. The stock was trading at $20.30 Tuesday morning, within a 52-week range of $17.89 to $52.74.

Tilray Inc. (NASDAQ: TLRY) short interest rose to 8.02 million shares from the previous 7.46 million. Shares traded at $21.92, in a 52-week range of $20.20 to $120.40.

The number of Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) shares short increased to 48.66 million from 41.84 million in the previous period. Its shares were trading at $8.08, in a 52-week range of $7.40 to $25.10.

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (NYSE: ACB) saw its short interest grow to 164.67 million shares from 161.75 million in the prior period. The stock was trading at $3.62. The 52-week range is $3.40 to $10.32.

Hexo Corp.’s (NYSE: HEXO) short interest rose to 29.68 million shares from the previous 29.29 million. The stock was trading at $2.12. The 52-week range is $2.00 to $8.40.

Short interest in Aphria Inc. (NYSE: APHA) increased to 33.86 million from the previous 32.71 million. The stock was trading at $4.97, and its 52-week range is $3.75 to $11.46.