CEO to stock analysts: “You are an embarrassment to your parents”

FAN Editor

Lourenco Goncalves, CEO of iron-ore producer Cleveland-Cliffs, was in no mood to mince words Friday during a conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the company’s latest earnings. 

“You guys should resign for your lack of knowledge of things,” the CEO said. “You are a disaster. You are an embarrassment to your parents.” 

Then he got personal. 

“We are going to screw this guy so badly that I don’t believe that they will be able to only resign. They will have to commit suicide,” said Goncalves, Cleveland-Cliffs’ CEO since 2014, in an apparent reference to analysts who cover his company. 

The harsh words are reminiscent of a confrontational performance in May by Elon Musk, when the Tesla CEO blasted what he call “boring, bonehead” questions about the electric car maker during a conference call with stock analysts. 

Goncalves’s rant came after the mining company reported a third-quarter profit of nearly $438 million, slightly below expectations. It had revenue $741.8 million, beating analysts’ forecast of $722.5 million.

Not content to blast the profession as a whole, Goncalves singled out Goldman Sachs senior analyst Matthew Korn for writing in a report on Friday that Cleveland-Cliffs had “modestly missed estimates,” according to one published account.

“Matthew Korn from Goldman Sachs, you can run, but you can’t hide,” he said.

He then promised to touch base with Korn — who apparently was not on the call — at a Goldman Sachs conference, and suggested he bring along an unidentified colleague who studies commodities for protection.

“It will be bad no matter what, but it will be a lot worse if you’re alone,” Goncalves said.

Cleveland-Cliffs did not respond to a request for comment, while a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said in an email that the investment banking firm declined to comment.

Shares of the company ended down 43 cents, or 3.8 percent, at $11.05. Still, even after the end-of-the-week decline, the company’s shares have surged more than 50 percent this year.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc.. All Rights Reserved.

Free America Network Articles

Leave a Reply

Next Post

Regulators Help Assuage China ETF Investors’ Concerns

This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. China ETFs were among the top performers Friday after Chinese regulators made a surprise move to allay concerns amid the emerging market’s worst pullback since 2015. For instance, the popular Xtrackers Harvest CSI 300 China A-Shares ETF (NYSEArca: ASHR) gained 3.7% on Friday. […]