💸 The Tape

Ascend Wellness Holdings reported third-quarter net revenue of $130.0 million, up 3.1% sequentially and 4.2% from a year ago, the first year-over-year revenue increase in several quarters. CEO Sam Brill called it “a milestone, not a finish line,” which is a fair description of a quarter that improved on nearly every operating metric while leaving the structural questions about the company’s debt load exactly where they were.

The operating quarter

Retail did the work. Retail revenue rose 5.5% to $97.8 million, now 75% of the mix, as new stores and partner locations came online across New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois and Massachusetts. Wholesale slipped to $32.2 million from $33.4 million, which the company attributes to a July work stoppage at the Barry, Illinois cultivation facility and continued pricing pressure. The Ozone brand holds the number-three dollar share and number-one unit position across Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts combined, and Ascend launched 103 new products in the quarter.

Margins moved the right way. Adjusted gross margin expanded to 48.4% from 46.2% in Q2 and 46.4% a year ago, and GAAP gross margin jumped nearly five points to 40.8%. Adjusted EBITDA was $31.1 million at a 23.9% margin, flat year over year in dollars and up 80 basis points sequentially. CFO Roman Nemchenko’s line, “scale and profitability are moving together,” holds for the quarter. The company is guiding to Q4 revenue growth of 1 to 2% with EBITDA margin consistent with Q3.

The GAAP net loss widened to $28.0 million from $9.8 million in Q2, but the Q2 figure benefited from a one-time $14.8 million tax reserve release. Against the prior-year quarter’s $25.8 million loss, the comparison is roughly flat. Income tax expense fell to $10.5 million from $12.3 million, with nine-month tax expense down more than half to $16.7 million, a partial reflection of the April Schedule III order on medical cannabis and the reserve adjustment.

The footprint

Ascend’s store count went from 39 in August 2024 to 61 as of November 12, exceeding the 60-store year-end target. The growth model has changed along the way. Several of the new locations are partner-operated: the Marlton, New Jersey store with a social equity licensee, a partner store in Plano, Illinois, and two Massachusetts stores in Worcester and Shrewsbury run under a consulting agreement pending acquisition approval. Two more New Jersey partner stores are expected in early 2027. The pending Massachusetts acquisition would also bring a vertically integrated medical license that Ascend intends to extend to all of its Massachusetts stores and its Athol cultivation site, which would move a meaningful share of its Massachusetts business inside the Schedule III perimeter.

The partnership approach lets Ascend grow its brand footprint and wholesale channel in capped states without using its own license slots. It also means some of the 61 stores contribute management fees and wholesale volume rather than full retail margin, and the release doesn’t break out owned versus partner store economics.

The balance sheet

This is where the quarter is harder to read. Cash fell to $63.6 million from $85.7 million at year-end, and net debt stands at $260.4 million, with $29.3 million of debt classified as current. Operating cash flow was $5.4 million for the quarter, which includes a $19.1 million semi-annual interest payment on the senior notes, and $8.5 million for nine months against $21.7 million a year ago. Free cash flow as the company defines it was $2.7 million, excluding $2.1 million in new-store build costs. Full-year capex is expected at around $20 million.

Ascend added $11 million in mortgage debt from CF Bank at 8.5%, maturing in 2031 and secured by five owned properties in Illinois, Maryland and Massachusetts. That rate is consistent with the bank-lending repricing that Vireo and others have accessed this fall, and it’s cheaper than the company’s existing senior notes. But it’s also incremental borrowing from a company whose cash balance has declined $22 million in nine months while it funded expansion. Non-current finance lease liabilities of $269.8 million sit alongside the debt, which is relevant for any investor modeling total fixed obligations.

The interest burden is the constraint. Roughly $38 million a year in note payments against annualized adjusted EBITDA of about $125 million is manageable, but it leaves limited room after capex and taxes. Ascend is growing into its capital structure rather than out of it.

The read

The third quarter shows a company that has stabilized its top line, improved its margins and hit its store target, while continuing to spend cash and add debt to do it. The retail growth is real and the margin expansion is real. The interest payments are also real, the cash balance is lower, and the pending Massachusetts medical license is the most concrete near-term lever for improving the tax line. Whether the uplisting plan is realistic depends on a DEA recommendation we are waiting on. The company has earned the milestone it’s claiming. The finish line is a balance sheet that funds itself, and this quarter didn’t get there.

📈 Dog Walkers

$ITHUF ( ▲ 2.44% ) Reports Q3

iAnthus Capital reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $38.4 million, up roughly 8% both sequentially and year over year, with adjusted EBITDA of $5.2 million against $2.5 million a year ago. For a company that has spent most of the decade in restructuring, that’s a real operating improvement: top-line growth in a flat market and an EBITDA margin that has climbed from 7% to nearly 14% in twelve months.

The quality of the margin is mixed. Gross margin slipped to 43.5%, down two points sequentially and about 60 basis points year over year, which means the EBITDA gain came from cost control below the gross line rather than pricing power. The net loss was $13.2 million, little changed from recent quarters, as interest and non-cash charges continue to swallow the operating progress. Loss per share rounds to zero on a share count that reflects the 2022 recapitalization.

The release omits what investors most need: no cash balance, no debt figure, no operating cash flow, no store count, no state-level commentary. The company’s prior audits carried a going-concern paragraph, and nothing in this release addresses whether that has changed.

Then there’s the auditor. PKF O’Connor Davies resigned effective November 12, and iAnthus has engaged Macias Gini & O’Connell for fiscal 2026. The disclosure is clean on its face: no adverse opinions, no disagreements, no reportable events beyond the material weaknesses already flagged in three consecutive 10-Ks. But a resignation, as opposed to a dismissal, is the auditor’s decision, and the release gives no reason. Combined with the absence of balance sheet data in an earnings announcement, it leaves more questions than a quarter of 8% growth should.

iAnthus is operating better. It is disclosing less. Those two facts sit uncomfortably together, and the 10-Q will need to close the gap.

$JUSHF ( ▼ 0.7% ) Relocates In PA

Jushi opened a relocated Beyond Hello dispensary in Hamburg, Pennsylvania on November 13, moving the license that previously sat on Sansom Street in Philadelphia to a retail corridor off Route 61 and I-78 in Berks County. The company says the site draws more than two million visits a year, and the grand opening on November 14 comes with a storewide sale of up to 40% off.”

Pennsylvania grew 16.8% for TerrAscend last quarter and remains Jushi’s largest market by store count. With the state Senate flipping to Democrats and adult-use back on the table for 2027, every Pennsylvania permit is worth more than it was a month ago. Jushi is making sure its 18 sit where the traffic is.

📺 Trade To Black

Hemp's Synthetic Ban Starts Today, Plus Avicanna's EBITDA Turnaround | TDR Cannabis in 5

• Avicanna $AVCN $AVCNF CEO Aras Azadian returns after a Q3 that swung to positive adjusted EBITDA of $0.22M, a $1.01M improvement year over year, on $5.73M in revenue, a 51% gross margin and a 30% cut in operating expenses. The conversation turns to the QUIX rapid-onset portfolio and whether its IP draws U.S. interest as rescheduling widens the medical framework.

• FundCanna’s Adam Stettner breaks down the DEA pushing back on medical operators in six states and D.C. seeking Schedule III protections, even as 900+ applicants have been approved.

• Phase one of the federal hemp ban takes effect today on synthetic cannabinoids, with most remaining hemp products facing the December 11 deadline and a lame-duck Congress deciding how much it cares.

• Wisconsin comes into play: incoming Democratic Gov. David Crowley says legalization could offset Medicaid cuts, and the next Assembly speaker is calling it a priority.