Adam Jackson
Curaleaf Holdings Inc. (CSE: CURA) (OTCQX: CURLF) posted mixed results Monday as the company met revenue expectations, despite seeing lower operational margins and rising net losses.
The company reported its financial results for the second quarter ending Sept. 30, 2022.
For the key metric of total revenue, Curaleaf eked out past expectations and delivered $340 million during the period, beating the Yahoo Finance average analyst estimate for revenues of $338 million.
Revenue from retail sales totaled $260 million, a 3% uptick versus $252 million in the previous quarter. The company attributed the growth in retail revenue to sales in New Jersey, as well as nearly 30 new store openings across several states in the past year.
The company also attributed some of the sustained growth to the addition of new wholesale partner accounts, product launches, and the expansion of cultivation and production facilities.
Curaleaf also reported a second-quarter net loss of $54.7 million compared with a net loss of $28.2 million in the second quarter.
“The fundamentals of our business remain solid, our early advantage in Europe is taking shape, and we are preparing for the year ahead by looking closely at operational efficiencies and optimizing our current assets,” said Boris Jordan, founder and executive chairman of Curaleaf.
Wholesale revenue fell 6% again to $79 million versus $84 million during the same time last year. The decline during the quarter was largely due to Curaleaf’s “continued rationalization of the company’s wholesale business in lower-margin states,” such as in California and Colorado, it said.
Still, Jordan said that he believes cannabis to be “a multiyear, double-digit growth industry with many long-term catalysts that will drive increased consumer adoption, and Curaleaf is at the center of it all.”
“We are acutely aware of the economic conditions our customers are navigating,” Jordan told investors on Monday. “As such, we are taking appropriate actions to ensure we continue driving growth and margin expansion next year, irrespective of the economic climate.”
Gross profit on cannabis sales was $165 million for the quarter, down 6% versus $175 million last quarter. Gross profit margin reached 48.5% versus 51.9% in the second quarter. This downtick largely resulted from the rise in vertically integrated products sold in its dispensaries and the mix of revenue from higher margin states, the company said.
Earnings per share was (7 cents), versus analysts’ estimates of a loss of four cents per share.
Adjusted EBITDA fell to $84 million in the third quarter, down 2% versus $86 in the previous quarter, but still an increase of 18% since the same time last year.
The company generated $60 million in operating cash flow during the quarter, ending with $198 million in cash on the balance sheet.
“Despite continued economic pressures all around us, cannabis is proving to be a resilient category as traffic trends continue to increase in our dispensaries even as many of our consumers seek greater value options,” Curaleaf CEO Matt Darin said on a call with investors.
Darin added, “We are comfortably transitioning from the asset accumulation phase to the asset optimization phase in our evolution. Importantly, we are at this juncture by choice, not market force.”
