Shares of marijuana producer Tilray were down as much as 20% on Tuesday after PepsiCo’s CFO Hugh Johnston told Cowen analyst Vivien Azer that the beverage company is staying clear of marijuana for the time being.
“I think the difficulties in investing in that category, particularly in the U.S., where federally these things are still not legal, are quite a considerable challenge,” Pepsi’s CFO said.
Several cannabis stocks were in the red after the CFO’s comments.
“So we look at everything, but certainly no plans at this point to do anything,’ Johnston said.
“For Tilray, and a very limit amount of shares, trading action is a lot of everyday news speculation and it can move around the stock around one way or another,” remarked ROTH Capital Partners analyst Scott Fortune.
“There’s still a lot of speculation in the space for partnerships, but I think it will take time to play out,” he added.
Johnston had also said to Jim Cramer and Sara Eisen on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street, “I think we’ll look at it critically, but I’m not prepared to share any plans that we may have in the space right now.”
