By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Shares of Tilray (NASDAQ:TLRY) traded nearly 3% higher in Thursday’s premarket as the pot producer rode high demand for cannabis during lockdowns to drive its first-quarter revenue higher by 43%.
June-August revenue rose to $168 million from $117.5 million a year earlier. Net cannabis revenue jumped 38% as more people took to it to serve recreational and medicinal purposes.
Legal acceptance of cannabis in more states in the $80 billion U.S. cannabis market as well as Canada also helped the company. Tilray also sent its first shipments of medical cannabis products to Germany in the quarter.
However, Tilray's net loss widened to $34.6 million in the first quarter from $21.74 million, as total operating expenses shot up 175%. The company gave no explanation for why this had happened.
The company said it is on track for at least $80 million in cost savings from its deal to merge with Aphria (NASDAQ:APHA). It said it is focused on maximizing near-term profitability in higher-margin international medical markets and in Canada.
The company posted its tenth consecutive quarter of positive adjusted EBITDA. Tilray claims to have a 16% share of the Canadian market and is aiming to raise that to 30% by the end of May 2024.