REUTERS/Nir Elias
An employee checks cannabis plants at a medical marijuana plantation in northern Israel March 21, 2017
- Tilray shares surged more than 15% Tuesday after announcing it had exported cannabis to Australia.
- The CBD product will treat children with epilepsy in the state of Victoria.
- Follow Tilray's stock price in real-time here.
Tilray, one of the largest Canadian marijuana companies, said Tuesday that it had successfully shipped a CBD product to Australia for treatment of children with epilepsy at three hospitals in Victoria. CBD is one of the nonpsychoactive compounds found in cannabis.
The company's stock surged 17% following the announcement, breaking a three-day losing streak for the $8.7 billion company.
It's the second round of medical cannabis exporting by Tilray to the Australian state under the government's "compassionate access" scheme, which first treated 29 critically-ill patients in March 2017. The patients were the first in Victoria to legally access marijuana-derived medicines.
Similar export announcements by Tilray last week - involving treatment of Essential Tremor (ET) in California - also sparked a rally in shares, before falling 53% from their September 19 high of more than $119 apiece. Wall Street remains concerned abut stretched valuations following the stock's more than 500% surge since its July initial public offering, giving it an average price target of $62 - implying a possible drop of 57%.
One prominent short-seller, Andrew Left of Citron Research, compared the rally in cannabis names to the cryptocurrency craze of early 2018: "These stock prices are equivalent to bitcoin mania - although it is even more ridiculous than bitcoin," he said on September 12, when Tilray shares were trading even lower than where they were on Tuesday.
