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Trulieve Cannabis Corp. Chief Executive Kim Rivers said the company remains comfortable with its 2021 sales target after it posted another consecutive quarter of a profit as a public company on Monday.
Trulieve
TRUL,
TCNNF,
rallied 10% after reporting a 7% increase in third-quarter net income and revenue that beat analyst expectations.
The Florida-based cannabis company continues to expect 2021 revenue of $815 million to $850 million, not including the contribution from its acquisition of Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. earlier this year.
“We’re confident we’ll hit that target,” Rivers told MarketWatch.
Trulieve’s third-quarter net income increased to $18.6 million, or 14 cents a share, from $17.42 million, or 15 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue increased to $224.1 million from $136.3 million.
Breaking out about $16 million in one-time expenses from its $2.1 billion all-stock acquisition of Harvest Health that closed on Oct. 1, Trulieve would have earned 26 cents a share.
Analysts expected Trulieve to earn 26 cents a share on revenue of $221.2 million, according to FactSet data.
The company has now posted net income for 15 quarters since it went public on the Canadian Securities Exchange nearly four years ago.
“We’ve always been focused on profitable growth,” Rivers said. “We have known from the very beginning that there are significant challenges to being a U.S., plant-touching operation.”
The realities of raising capital, operating under different regulations in each state, and higher expenses than other industries prompted the company to generate earnings early on.
“We focused on scaling our business in our home state first,” she said. “We were able to build a profitable foundation to use as a launching pad for expansion.”
Nowadays, Trulieve operates in 11 states, with more coming on line as states
OK cannabis sales in both Republican- and Democrat-controlled states.
Last month, the company raised $350 million in debt at an interest rate of 8%, lower than other cannabis companies, Rivers said. The company said it believes the debt issuance ranked as the largest financing to date of any public multi-state operator.
Looking ahead, Rivers is bullish on more states in the Southeast launching medical cannabis programs after Trulieve opened its first dispensary in West Virginia.
Including gains on Monday, Trulieve’s stock is up 8.5% so far this year, compared to a rise of 3.4% by the Cannabis ETF
THCX,
