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Buds & Duds: Management changes drive trading action for pot stocks

Last updated: 21:02 31 Jan 2019 EST, First published: 10:45 31 Jan 2019 EST

cannabis plant

Cannabis stocks had a strong perforrmance in Thursday, with a slew of green across Canada and US markets.

The North American Marijuana index, which tracks top cannabis stocks in the US and Canada, added 2.3% to hit 289.50 on Thursday.

The momentum comes a day after Bill Blair, Canada’s minister for the Cannabis Act, reported that there is enough marijuana in Canada to meet demand.

But it was not Blair’s comments, but management changes that drove much of the trading action today.

Buds

Shares of Charlotte’s Web Holdings Inc (CSE:CWEB) (OTCQX:CWBHF) climbed Thursday, up 12.6% to $16.51 in New York.

The Boulder, Colorado company, which specializes in the manufacturing of hemp extract products, has tapped Stephen Lermer as its chief operating officer. Lermer is a seasoned pharmaceutical executive, having held senior jobs at DuPont, Johnson & Johnson, Burroughs Wellcome (now GlaxoSmithKline) and Akela Pharma.

Charlotte’s Web, under the leadership of President and Chief Executive Officer Hessaam Moallem and company co-founder and Chairman of the Board Joel Stanley, has built the #1 brand by market share in the hemp-derived CBD market. And they’ve accomplished this by expanding their distribution network to 3,680 retail locations, planting 300 acres of hemp in 2018, and harvesting 675,000 pounds of raw hemp in 2018.

Shares of Tilray Inc (NASDAQ:TLRY) also popped Thursday following a topsy-turvy few days, adding 3.1% to $80.49.

The Canadian cannabis company is also shaking up its management. Greg Christopher, formerly with Nestle, will take on the post of executive-vice-president of operations. Rita Seguin has been tapped as executive vice-president of human resources, joining from Diageo where she held a similar job. Dara Redler, Coca-Cola’s former senior counsel, joins as general counsel while Charlie Cain has been named vice-president of retail after serving as vice-president of concept development and franchising for Starbucks.

Duds

There were a few laggards in the mix Thursday.

Sunniva (CSE:SNN) (OTCQB:SNNVF) shares slipped 1.25% to $3.60 after unveiling a pair of executive promotions, but later recovered, adding 0.2% at US$38.06. Kevin Wilkerson has been promoted to president of Sun CA Holdings, Sunniva’s wholly-owned California operating subsidiary, from his former job as chief operating officer of Sun CA Holdings. Mary Patton has come on board at Sunniva as a vice-president of marketing, after several years of consulting with the company.

With operations in Canada and California, the Vancouver company focuses on producing medical cannabis and converting trim to extracted products like cannabis oil.

MariMed Inc (OTCQB:MRMD) fared the worst on the North American Marijuana index, however, with its shares down 9.2% to $4.04 on no reported news. The company focuses on providing advisory services to businesses in the US cannabis industry. It’s also devoting attention to the burgeoning hemp market and recently set up a new subsidiary MariMed Hemp to zero in on the branding and distribution of hemp-derived CBD products.

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