Even with the aid of the burgeoning marijuana industry, Aurora Cannabis, a cannabis company headquartered in Canada, and its stock has never quite enjoyed the same level of valuation and popularity as its other esteemed rivals Canopy Growth and Tilray in the ever-growing space.
That will soon change though, as the company announced just this morning that Nelson Peltz, an activist, has jumped onboard the company as a "strategic advisor." The effect is, in fact, immediate, as the news sent Aurora's stock up as high as 11 percent in the premarket trading to 8.80, marking the company's best day of trading since December of last year. Furthermore, the company also added that it has granted Peltz options to purchase 19.96 million common Aurora shares at a price of 10.34 Canadian dollars ($7.74). Given the chance that Peltz exercises this option given to him, he would effectively be the company's second-biggest shareholder.
In a release following the announcement, the longtime activist investor said, "I believe Aurora has a solid execution track record, is strongly differentiated from its peers, has achieved integration throughout the value chain and is poised to go to the next level across a range of industry verticals."
The addition of Peltz to the Aurora team represents one of the largest endorsements of the burgeoning cannabis industry.
Aurora stock trades under the ticker ACB on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The marijuana industry
Just a few short years ago, the marijuana industry experienced some sort of resurgence, giving back the rightful attention to a plant that has been prohibited for well over a century now. This started a movement of sorts, pushing numerous marijuana companies to take root and a number of states going around the law to find some sort of loophole that can give marijuana, both medical and recreational, legality once again. As a result, numerous states have allowed for its recreational use, with even more giving the green signal for its medicinal benefits.
The real change, however, came last October 2018, when Canada decided to become the largest, and first-ever G7 nation to fully legalize the use of recreational marijuana throughout the entire country. This ushered in a new wave for the industry, especially for the companies that have taken root in it.
