Topic: How To Invest

Q: Pat, what do you think about this marijuana stock: CannTrust Holdings? Thanks.

Article Excerpt

A: CannTrust Holdings, $7.19, symbol TRST (Shares outstanding: 103.8 million; Market cap: $704.8 million; www.canntrust.ca), is a Canadian-based producer of medical cannabis with distribution in Canada, Denmark and Australia. In addition, the company plans to branch into the recreational and pet-medicines markets. CannTrust started production of medical cannabis under license from Health Canada in 2014. The company currently operates two production facilities. The largest is a 450,000-square-foot commercial greenhouse located in Niagara, Ontario. This facility delivers five or six crops per year with an annual yield of 200 to 300 grams per square foot. This is a high-yield facility with a below-average production cost of $0.75 per gram and a current production capacity of 50,000 kilograms of cannabis per year. The Niagara plant is located on 46 acres of land, which can also be used for further greenhouse facilities or outdoor production. Outdoor production—just recently sanctioned by the Canadian government—is estimated to cost less than $0.25 a gram to grow, while marijuana produced…