Canopy Growth Corp. (CGC) on Thursday became the first legal-cannabis firm to trade on the New York Stock Exchange, but dipped some 3% by early afternoon to trade at $29.28. The stock had closed Wednesday at $30.21 on the OTC pink sheets, then opened Thursday at $30.85 on the Big Board before pulling back.
"We're a company focused on leadership, vision and integrity, and listing on one of the most prestigious exchanges in the world validates the level of execution and ambition our team has demonstrated," Bruce Linton, Canopy's chairman and CEO, said in a statement ahead of the opening.
Cormark Securities analyst Jesse Pytlak told TheStreet that snagging an NYSE listing "represents a major milestone for the company and the cannabis industry as a whole. It validates cannabis as an investable sector and as a legitimate and potentially sizable consumer vertical, and demonstrates the shift in attitudes towards the acceptance of cannabis."
Based in Canada, Canopy has traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "WEED" since 2014, when it became the first regulated cannabis producer to list shares anywhere in North America. The company's Toronto-listed shares have rocketed nearly 400% over the past year and are up some 28% year to date. Canopy also came to the forefront of Wall Street's attention in October 2017 when Action Alerts PLUS holding Constellation Brands (STZ - Get Report) took a minority stake in the company.
Canopy's business includes operations in eight countries, as well as a 2.4 million square feet of licensing marijuana farms. The company said this week that it plans to expand that to 5.6 million square feet by 2018's end to "meet demand from the recreational market following legalization, as well as the rapidly expanding global medical cannabis market."