Cannabis stocks

Aurora Cannabis was founded in Canada in 2016 by a group of investors, who were able to secure a plot of over 160 acres of land in Mountain View County, where the company’s first facility was located. The company was licensed to grow cannabis in 2014, making it the first cannabis producer to obtain a federal license in that province. On November 2014, Aurora Cannabis was issued the first Health Canada license for the sale of medical marijuana.

Since then, the company has built numerous facilities in Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Oceania. On January, 2017, the company also received a Health Canada license to sell cannabis oils, prompting the launch of four cannabis oil-based product lines in April 2017. By the end of September 2018, Aurora Cannabis had eight licensed manufacturing facilities, five sale licenses, and operated in 25 countries. Within a year, the declared production capacity grew to over 625,000 kilograms of cannabis per year, most of which taking place at the Canadian headquarters. The presence of Aurora Cannabis on the international markets continued to grow, and today the company is fully operational in 25 countries worldwide.

Aurora ranks fifth among the largest cannabis companies in the world by market capitalisation. As of April 2018, the company had a market value of $ 4.5 billion. At the time, the company was completing the acquisition of its previous competitor CanniMed Therapeutics.

Canopy Growth, which until 2014 was called Tweed, is a Canadian medical marijuana company, with the added capability and competency to convert to a recreational marijuana producer in a relatively short period of time. In 2014, Tweed became the first publicly traded cannabis company in North America. In 2018, the company went through a re-organisation and re-branding process, which led to the creation of the new Canopy Growth Corporation, the first cannabis company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Initially, the newly created company operated primarily in Canada and in the first few months of operations, its revenues rose 282% from the previous year, reaching a total of $ 83 million in the last three months of 2018.

Tilray, a Canadian pharmaceutical company specialising in the production and marketing of medical and recreational marijuana, was the first cannabis company to go public on the NASDAQ stock exchange. Specifically, the company uses cutting edge production processes for the cultivation, harvesting, care, cutting, and packaging of cannabis.

In 2019, Tilray generated nearly $167 million in revenues. Its head office is located in Toronto, with products being sold in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Portugal and Latin America.

GW Pharmaceuticals, which was founded in the UK in 1998 by two biotechnology entrepreneurs, was the result of close collaboration with the United Kingdom Home Office and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which were instrumental in creating the necessary guidelines for license application and for the cannabinoids research conducted by GW Pharmaceuticals.

The company’s extensive growth is due in part to the development of an international communication network of leading scientists and the creation of a research group with extensive experience in the cannabinoid sector.

As a result of such growth, an analysis of its stocks between 2012 and 2019 shows a very significant price increase: whereas in 2012, a company share had a price of $10.36, in 2019, the same stock went up to $107.50.

Cara Therapeutics is a U.S. bio-pharmaceutical company founded in 2004, which specialises in the distribution of products for the relief of acute and chronic pain and itching; its drug uses a new approach to pain management that primarily relies on kappa opioid receptors.

Cara Therapeutics is currently developing new products without same side effects of traditional pain medications, such as morphine, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen. In fact, the company’s goal is to use marijuana for pain management, working on cannabinoid receptors to influence patient’ reactions to pain and inflammation. This is why the company has developed an experimental cannabinoid drug, called CR701, which could prove very effective in treating chronic pain, without the addictive side effects typical of other pain relievers.

Total revenues for Cara Therapeutics totalled $19.9 million for the year that ended in December.

Cronos Group, which was founded in 2012, is a Canadian producer with a strong international presence through subsidiaries and licensed producers. It uses multiple international production and distribution platforms and is fully committed to products research and development, to the establishment of international brands, and to the development of intellectual properties. The company has built a global network based on partnership, joint ventures, and product manufacturing and distribution across 5 continents.

The value of Cronos Group's stock skyrocketed between 2014 and the end of 2019. In fact, whereas in 2014, the price per share was 0.75 CAD ($0.57), in December 2019, it had gone up to 8.73 CAD ($6.65).

Aphria, a Canadian company and distributing cannabis, is listed on both New York and Toronto stock exchanges since January 2018. Its markets capitalisation at the time of listing was around $3 billion, making it one of the largest cannabis companies in the world.

Aphria owns a 300,000m2 cannabis greenhouse facility in Ontario, which produces 90% of its cannabis. The company is currently in the process of expanding its operations, as the CEO is planning to open new greenhouse to more adequately respond to growing demand.

The Horizon Marijuana Life Science Index ETF​​ focuses on medical marijuana companies and tracks around 30 marijuana stocks.

The ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF​​ was initially a South American real estate ETF until it changed its investment focus to marijuana stocks in 2018. This is not a true pure-play specialising in marijuana ETFs and it does not only offer cannabis stocks. According to its prospectus, this ETF tracks over 40 companies that are involved in the following processes: