Aphria Inc (TSX:APHA)(NASDAQ:APHA) released its latest quarterly results last week, and investors weren’t impressed, to say the least. Shares of the Canadian pot producer fell close to 20% in one day, wiping out much of the rally the stock was enjoying in the weeks leading up to the release of the results.
There were a couple of reasons investors were likely down on the results.
The first Is that net sales of $152.2 million were up a modest 5% from the previous period. And the company also reported a net loss of $98.8 million – only the second time it’s been in the red in the past five quarters. Aphria blamed the poor bottom line on impairment charges and nonoperating losses related to fair value adjustments in its debentures and long-term investments.
And for the full year, Aphria recorded a net loss of $84.6 million, which is the steepest loss it’s incurred in any of the last five years. In the previous fiscal year, Aphria’s loss was a more modest $16.5 million.
Although the company prided itself in Q4 being the fifth straight quarter where its adjusted EBITDA number was in the black, that wasn’t enough to convince investors that this was a good period for the company.
But despite the selloff after earnings, Aphria’s still not doing all that bad this year. Its stock is down 8% while the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF (TSX:HMMJ) has fallen by more than 17%. Investors may have simply gotten their hopes up that Aphria was going to deliver a strong finish to the year. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t the case.
