Following a week when Canada’s well-known pot producers reported big losses on the September quarter, their American counterparts are showing how it’s done. Late Tuesday, the world’s biggest cannabis seller Curaleaf Holdings announced a 33% sequential increase in the quarter’s sales, while Harvest Health & Recreation early Wednesday reported a 25% sequential rise. Counting acquisitions that Curaleaf has yet to close, September revenue would have been $129 million.

“The U.S. market is the best cannabis market in the world,” Curaleaf chief executive Joe Lusardi told Barron’s Tuesday. While the U.S. obviously has more people, its cannabis operators suffer many disadvantages compared with their counterparts in the north, including pot’s illegality under U.S. federal law and a consequent refusal of national financial institutions to deal with businesses like Curaleaf.

Forced to list their shares on the Canadian Securities Exchange, Curaleaf and Harvest have seen their stocks carried out in the ebb tide of Canadian producers like Canopy Growth (ticker: CGC), whose sales stumbles pulled its stock down nearly 50% this year. On the CSE, Curaleaf stock (CURA.Canada) has lagged behind the overall stock market this year, gaining 13% to a recent 7.30 Canadian dollars (or US$5.50). Harvest (HARV.Canada) is down 52%, to C$3.40.

Although Curaleaf had a net loss of US$7 million, or a penny a share, on September revenue of $62 million, it managed to earn a small operating profit and generated “adjusted” cash flow of $9 million (excluding stock compensation, interest, taxes, depreciation, and other charges that it says are one-time expenses).

The Massachusetts-based company also negotiated a better deal on its yet-to-close acquisition of the Select vaping business. Lusardi said that the popular West Coast brand suffered a September month sales drop after the summer’s rash of lung injuries among users of marijuana and nicotine vaporizers—which federal regulators suspect was caused by adulterants in black market products. Lusardi says that demand for legal products like Select’s seems to be reviving.

Curaleaf’s performance was cheered by its sell-side fans. Cowen analyst Vivien Azer raised her sales forecast for the company, while maintaining her price target of C$12.60 for the stock. At GMP Securities. Rob Fagan held to his ambitious price target of C$24.

Arizona-based Harvest reported September revenue of $33 million. With a bunch of acquisitions under way, it said that sales would have been $95 million had all the mergers been complete. On the quarter, Harvest lost $34 million on operations and had a net loss of $39 million, or 14 cents a share. “Adjusted” cash flow was a negative $11 million.

On a Tuesday morning conference call, Harvest dialed down the lower end of its sales guidance for 2020, to a range of $700 million to $1 billion. The lower end had previously been $900 million.

Earlier this month, Harvest announced a quality control program to reassure customers that its vapes were safe. The company also adjusted the terms of one of its acquisitions, to conserve cash. Harvest chief executive Steve White told callers that the year has been frustrating and exhilarating, with state regulatory delays and capital tight after the fall of cannabis stocks. He promised to persevere.

Curaleaf stock has gained 1.5% to $5.58 at 9:28 a.m. in premarket trading, while Harvest Health & Recreation has dropped 3.6% to $2.55 and Canopy Growth has climbed 4.7% to $16.04.

Write to Bill Alpert at william.alpert@barrons.com