So I recently had a poster refer to me as a "tard who will never make a dollar" for suggesting he consider future Price to Earnings based on planned & funded expansion, and the profits that production will yield in12 to 18 months as a way to analyze potential upside. 

Then I thought hey... despite my education, experience and background in the industry, I'm just another guy on the internet debating with a random poster. So why not take a look at the professional money managers, (mutual & seg fund managers) that work for the major banks, insurance and asset management companies and see who they currently hold and believe in in the Canadian Cannabis space and then share that info. 

Then I decided why not take it a step further and dig into those funds/ fund managers and see how much money they manage, how much of their portfolio they're turning over annually, and how their performance has been historically compared to their peers. 

All of the below info is available on morningstar.ca. I hope you find this useful and that it helps your thinking when selecting companies in this turbulent market. By the way *aum stands for "Assets Under Management". Here's what the pros have picked: 

WEED

  • Held by: Manulife Cdn Focused (.41% of their aum) 
  • CC&L Fundamental Canadian Equity (.10% of their aum)

APH

  • Held by: Manulife Cdn Focused (.5% of aum)
  • TD Canadian Small Cap Equity (.18% aum)

ACB

  • Held by: CI Canadian Small/Mid Cap (.22% aum)

CRON

  • Held by: CC&L Fundamental Market Neutral (.15% aum)
  • Matco Small Cap Corporate Class Series F (.25% Aum)

LEAF

  • Held by: Manulife Cdn Focused (.4% aum)
  • CC&L Fundamental Market Neutral (.51% aum)
  • Palos Income Fund (.91% aum)
  • BMO Canadian Small Cap Equity A (.27% aum)
  • Fiera Capital Equity Growth F (.16% aum)

TRST

  • Held by: Aurion II Equity Class (5.04% aum)
  • London Life Growth Equity (.64% aum)
  • Matco Small Cap Corporate Class (.79% aum)
  • Front Street Tactical Equity Class (2.86% aum)
  • GWL Growth Equity (.62% aum)

OGI

  • no fund ownership

MARI

  • Held by: CC&L Fundamental Market Neutral (.33% aum)
  • TD Canadian Small Cap Equity (.16% aum)
  • Matco Small Cap Corporate Class Series (1.22% aum)
  • IA Clarington North American Opp Cl (1.81% aum)
  • CC&L Fundamental Cdn Small Cap Equity (.22% aum)

MPX

  • no fund ownership

WMD

  • no fund ownership

THCX

  • Held by: Palos Income Fund (.64% aum)
  • Matco Small Cap Corporate Class (1.03% aum)
  • Redwood Equity Growth Class (1.49% aum)
  • Palos Equity Income (.62% aum)
  • IA Clarington North American Opp Cl (.17% aum)

TGIF

  • no fund ownership

ABCN

  • no fund ownership

EMH

  • Held by: Redwood Pension Class (.37% of their aum) 

EMC

  • No fund ownership

HVT

  • no fund ownership

VFF

  • Held by: Redwood Pension Class (4.24% of their aum) 

  • McElvaine Investment Trust (10.07% aum)

  • Matco Small Cap Corporate Class (1.03% aum)

  • IA Clarington North American Opp Cl (1.51% aum)

Here is a Look at the Mutual Funds/ Managers & Their Track Record. I have sorted these by aum from largest to smallest

Manulife Cdn Focused:

  • 961 million aum
  • 93% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 12.85% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 4% out of 379 funds in their category over the past 5 years (top quartile)
  • Cannabis holdings: WEED, APH. LEAF

CC&L Fundamental Canadian Equity

  • 271 million aum
  • 49% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 7.34% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 32% out of 303 funds in their category over the past 5 years (top half )
  • Cannabis holdings: WEED

TD Canadian Small Cap Equity

  • 647 million aum
  • 77% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 7.37% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 40% out of 136 funds in their category over the past 5 years (2nd quartile)
  • Cannabis holdings: APH, MARI

CI Canadian Small/ Mid Cap

  • 437 million aum
  • 67% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 6.34% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 57% percent out of 47 funds in their category over the past 5 years (3rd quartile)
  • Cannabis holdings: ACB

CC&L Fundamental Market Neutral

  • 253 million aum
  • Sock turnover last 365 days unavailable
  • 5.78% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranking unavailable
  • Cannabis holdings: CRON, MARI, LEAF, 

Matco Small Cap Corporate Class

  • 63 million aum
  • 50% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 8.51% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 25% percent out of 136 funds in their category over the past 5 years (1st quartile)
  • Cannabis holdings: CRON, MARI, TRST, THCX, VFF

Palos Income Fund

  • 99 million aum
  • stock turnover last 365 unavailable
  • 55% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 9.33% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranking unavailable
  • Cannabis holdings: LEAF THCX

BMO Canadian Small Cap Equity

  • 299 million aum
  • 55% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 10.08% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 16% percent out of 136 funds in their category over the past 5 years (1st quartile)
  • Cannabis holdings: LEAF 

Fiera Capital Equity Growth

  • 336 million aum
  • Stock Turnover last 365 days 60%
  • 8.6% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 22% percent out of 128 funds in their category over the past 5 years (1st quartile)
  • Cannabis holdings: LEAF 

Aurion II Equity Class

  • No public info available
  • Cannabis holdings: TRST

London Life Growth Equity

  • 99 million aum
  • 54% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 3.3% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 60% percent out of 52 (seg) funds in their category over the past 5 years (3rd quartile (for seg funds, this would be bottom quartile for mutuals)
  • Cannabis holdings: TRST

Front Street (Redwood) Tactical Equity Class

  • 13million aum
  • 218% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 7.98% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 40% percent out of 47 funds in their category over the past 5 years (2nd quartile )
  • Cannabis holdings: TRST

GWL Growth Equity (A)

  • 22 million aum
  • 52% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 3.49% avg annual return over the last 5 years
  • ranked top 51% percent out of 52 (seg) funds in their category over the past 5 years (3rd quartile (for seg funds, this would be bottom quartile for mutuals)
  • Cannabis holdings: TRST

IA Clarington North American Opportunities Class

  • 29.7 million aum
  • 36% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 6.39% avg annual return over the last 3 years (5 year not available)
  • ranked top 10% percent out of 64 funds in their category over the past 3 years (1st quartile) (5 year not available)
  • Cannabis holdings: MARI, THCX, VFF

CC&L Fundamental CDN Small Cap Equity

  • no info available fund closed to new investors
  • Cannabis holdings: MARI

Redwood Equity Growth

  • 30 million aum
  • 408% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 17.03% avg annual return over the last 5 years 
  • ranked top 1% percent out of 136 funds in their category over the past 5 years (1st quartile) 
  • Cannabis holdings: THCX

Palos Equity Income

  • 18 million aum
  • 109% stock turnover last 365 days
  • 8.23% avg annual return over the last 5 years 
  • no rank available
  • Cannabis holdings: THCX

Redwood Pension Class

  • 11 million aum
  • 343% stock turnover last 365 days
  • (negative) -124.04% avg annual return over the last 5 years 
  • no ranking available
  • Cannabis holdings: EMH, VFF

McElvaine Investment Trust

  • 33 million aum
  • Turnover not available
  • 18.05% 1 year return (new fund no other periods available)
  • no ranking available
  • Cannabis holdings: VFF

I will come back with additional info (how much managed money is in each stock currently) later in the day unless someone is kind enough to do that work for me. 

Here are some quick summary thoughts/ insights: 

  • MARI & THCX appear to be the only small caps under 600 million that the pros currently see value in. 

  • Funds with very high turnover rates (stick & move) hold THCX right now. 

  • The insurance/ seg fund companies love TRST

  • Leaf is getting the most love out of the "Big 5"

  • Despite having a small cap mandate (typically under 2 billion mkt cap.) the TD manager really must love APH because they don't fit the mandate with their current mkt cap. 

  • That Redwood Equity Growth Class is run by some real Cowboys (I like it)! That is really aggressive active management (408% annual stock turnover) and very strong performance. Take a look at their top holding right now 6.5% in a Hiku Brands 8%, (is this a convertible debenture?).....I need to start paying attention to Hiku! 

  • Alot more VFF held than EMH, (some really big VFF weightings in certain funds). Even in the case where the fund holds both.

For anyone that made it to the end of this I hope you enjoyed and found value! I'd love to read your thoughts/ comments 

Cheers,

S.B.