Village Farms has an upside of 210 per cent, Beacon Securities says

On Monday, Village Farms International (Village Farms International Stock Quote, Chart TSX:VFF) got a huge target raise from analyst Doug Cooper of Beacon Securities who says the cannabis company is now in the top three among Canadian licensed producers in terms of domestic capacity.

BC-based Village Farms announced on Monday that its 50 per cent owned joint venture, Pure Sun Farms, has exercised its option on the existing 1.1 million square foot Delta 2 greenhouse, currently owned by VFF. The move effectively doubles the size of Pure Sun Farms’ footprint in Delta, BC, to 2.2 million square feet.

“With an ongoing shortage of supply from Canadian cannabis producers, Village Farms is thrilled that Pure Sunfarms’ has made the decision to more than double its production capacity with the addition of Delta 2 – just three weeks after the option became exercisable,” CEO Michael DeGiglio said.

Cooper says he recently visited Pure Sun Farms and confirmed that it is currently on a roughly 50,000 to 55,000 kg run-rate, making it one of, if not the largest, Canadian producers of the moment, with the company expecting to be at a 75,000 kg run-rate by the third quarter of this year. The addition of Delta 2 will effectively double its production capacity to over 150,000 kg, says Cooper.

“We believe [the option exercise] catapults PSF to top-3 status in terms of scale of all of the Canadian LP’s in terms of domestic capacity,” he said. “As a reminder, PSF also has an option on D1 (2.4 million SF), which is available until September 28, 2021. If that is optioned, we believe PSF will be the largest Canadian LP and could ultimately have 30 to 40 per cent market share in Canada.”

Cooper forecasts VFF to generate fiscal 2019 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA of $295.0 million and $38.4 million, respectively, fiscal 2020 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA of $316.0 million and $80.8 million, respectively, and fiscal 2021 revenue and Adjusted EBITDA of $430.0 million and $149.1 million, respectively.

The analyst is maintaining his “Buy” rating while raising his target price from $32.00 to $60.00, representing a projected return of 210 per cent at the time of publication.