Last year, marijuana investors still would have likely considered cannabis companies Aurora Cannabis (NYSE: ACB) and Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC) to be the industry leaders in the Canadian pot market. But with both companies now struggling to stay out of the red and finding it difficult at times to grow their top lines, another cannabis producer, Aphria (NASDAQ: APHA), has had an opportunity to establish itself.
Although Aphria was a big name in the cannabis industry a year ago, investors weren't considering it in the same breath as Aurora or Canopy Growth. A year ago, Aphria's market cap was about $1.6 billion, nowhere near Aurora's $8 billion valuation or Canopy Growth's astronomical market cap of over $10 billion. Since then, Aphria's market cap has declined somewhat, but at $1.3 billion it's now slightly more than Aurora's $1.1 billion. Meanwhile, Canopy Growth currently sits at a market cap of about $6.3 billion.
Let's take a look at why Aphria has become a relatively bigger name in the industry and why it's likely to continue rising in value in relation to its peers.