Aurora Cannabis CEO: ‘our transformation plan is on track’

Aurora Cannabis Inc (NASDAQ: ACB) is up 10% after-hours on better-than-expected sales for the fiscal second quarter. It’s the first time in over a year that the cannabis company topped sales estimates.

Important points in the Q2 report

Aurora said it remained in C$75.1 million in loss ($59 million) and generated C$60.6 million in net revenue. In the same quarter last year, it had posted a much broader over C$300 million in net loss on $67.7 million in revenue.

According to FactSet, experts had forecast a narrower C$45.4 million in quarterly loss but a lower C$59.1 million in sales. In the trailing ten quarter, Aurora has topped sales expectations only two times. On CNBC’s “Closing Bell”, CEO Miguel Martin said:

Aurora is focusing on medical cannabis

After a 75% hit to the stock price in the past twelve months related to declining demand driven losses, reverse stock split and an executive shake-up, the new management is focusing more on medical cannabis (high-margin) to boost profits.

Recreational sales were down 48% in the recent quarter offset by an 18% increase in the high-margin medical cannabis sales. Sales of medical cannabis internationally were up 67% YoY and 24% versus the previous quarter, as per the earnings press release. The chief executive added: