Aurora Cannabis Inc Delivers With Q1 Results

Aurora Cannabis Inc just delivered its Q1 results, proving once again why Aurora remains a must-own in the cannabis space. While the stock has backed off its recent highs due to technical selling and trading halts on November 16, Aurora has a C$50 million war chest to keep the momentum going. With Canopy Growth Corp as Canada's first billion dollar cannabis unicorn, is Aurora the next to crack the billion dollar mark?First up, a little background on the company. Aurora Cannabis Inc trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol ACB, on the OTC Markets under ACBFF, and in Frankfurt under 21P. Aurora’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Aurora Cannabis Enterprises Inc., is a licensed producer of medical marijuana pursuant to Health Canada’s Access to Cannabis for Medical Purposes Regulations (ACMPR) and operates a 55,200 square foot, expandable, state-of-the-art production facility in Mountain View County, Alberta, Canada. The license was granted November 2015 and product sales started on January 5, 2016.Sales of 435,720 grams of cannabis for the three month period ending September 30, 2016 accounted for revenues of C$3.1 million. Compared to Q4 2016, cannabis sales volume (in grams) was up 117.5% and up 151.7% in terms of dollar revenue, reflecting an increase in the average price per gram of product sold. Aurora is now generating over C$1 million per month with November on track to be record month. Product sales are projected to be in excess of 200 kilograms and gross revenue in excess of C$1.6 million.Revenues generated to date reflect what management believes is the fastest growth rate of active registered patients in the industry as the company scales up to full production capacity. Of special note, Aurora uses the metric of active registered patients, which as at November 27 stood at 10,700, i.e. not counting patients who have not placed an order for the previous four months, as opposed to total registered patients.Aurora’s wholly owned subsidiary, CanvasRx, Canada’s largest network of cannabis patient counseling centers, continues to expand its leadership in patient outreach and registration. CanvasRx currently exceeds 13,000 registered patients, including more than 2,500 patients registered with Aurora as of today, representing a growth in patient registration in excess of 30% since being acquired by Aurora.To keep its momentum going, Aurora plans to construct a new 600,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility (subsequently increased to at least 650,000 square foot), increasing total production capacity to more than 70,000 kg annually. Management said that the state-of-the-art nature of the new facility will contribute to significant savings in production costs on a per gram basis. Aurora also started establishing an onsite analytical laboratory to accelerate product time to market and increase sales capacity. All of this is intended to help the company complete its business strategy, which is as follows:

Aurora's business strategy is to continue accelerating its penetration of the Canadian cannabis market, achieve its Health Canada sales license for derivative products (cannabis oils) and launch derivatives sales, transition to profitability in the short-term, and begin a major facility expansion for additional production capacity. When the federal government passes legislation legalizing the consumer use of cannabis, the Company anticipates participating in the non-medical consumer market, and will envision further production capacity expansion to meet future market demand for cannabis products.

Currently trading with a market cap of C$674 million, Aurora Cannabis remains one the must-own stocks in the cannabis sector.With recreational marijuana legalization about to happen in Canada within the next several months, Aurora is going to be a prime beneficiary. This will keep the momentum going for Aurora shares as we head into 2017. With the Canadian recreational market expected to be worth over C$7 billion, we could see Aurora Cannabis crack the C$1 billion market cap much sooner rather than later. We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest updates on Aurora Cannabis Inc, sign up below!Disclosure: We have no position in Aurora Cannabis Inc and have not been compensated for this article.