Raymond James upgraded Village Farms (TSX: VFF) (NASDAQ: VFF) to a strong buy, up from a outperform rating and a $20 price target this week. This comes after Village Farms announced that they had completed their acquisition of Pure Sunfarms.
Back in September, Village announced that they would be purchasing the remaining 41.3% of Pure Sunfarms from Emerald Health Therapeutics (TSXV: EMH) for C$79.9 million. The acquisition consisted of a $60 million cash payment, along with a promissory note valued at $19.9 million which is set to mature six months from the date of issue.
Rahul Sarugaser, Raymond James’ analyst, comments, “As full owners of PSF, VFF has now cemented its position as Canada’s premier supplier of quality, high-volume cannabis.” A recent note was sent out a few weeks ago, where Sarugaser said that they believe the Canadian cannabis selloff is overdone for the strong operators. He says that they see data suggesting that Village Farms is “materially outperforming its peers in month-over-month cannabis sales.”
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Furthermore, he points to Village’s Texas-based greenhouse footprint as an “increasingly-probable, federally-lawful U.S. CBD and/or cannabis opportunity.”
Sarugaser then talks about how Raymond James estimates that retails sales grew by 2% in the third quarter. October sales are down 5% from September, with Aphria, Canopy, Aurora numbers being flat or down 10% quarter over quarter. He says, “the same channel check data indicates PSF revenue trending upward at a consistent 15% MoM” and adds that Village is the only licensed producer to grow its market share in October.
Raymond James is currently forecasting revenues for Village Farms to hit $33.8 million and $10.8 million in US Produce and Canada Produce, respectively, in the third quarter. Meanwhile, its estimated that Pure Sunfarms will record $10.8 million in revenue via the sale of 12,726 kilograms of cannabis.
Information for this briefing was found via Sedar and Refinitiv. The author has no securities or affiliations related to this organization. Not a recommendation to buy or sell. Always do additional research and consult a professional before purchasing a security. The author holds no licenses.
