Biotech's pleasant way of breaking bad news
Tuesday, 4-November-2014
This morning Regeneron (Nasdaq: REGN) is trading down nearly 5% on third quarter sales that missed consensus expectations. In addition, the company's press release said that it is “tightening” full year guidance for U.S. Eylea sales from $1.7 - $1.8 billion to $1.7 - $1.74 billion. “Tightening” guidance of course is just a pleasant way of saying Regeneron will not meet the high end of what people were hoping for. In other words, it is bad news.
It is common practice these days for most publicly traded companies to sugarcoat bad news, but biotech companies are the masters of it. "Tightens guidance" is pretty good, but my all-time favorite is the dreaded "provides update." If you see those two seemingly benign words in the title of a press release, run for the hills because it is almost always the kiss of death. That got me thinking, what are some other pleasant terms biotech companies like to use in press releases in order to soften the blow of bad news?
Here were some of your responses (please keep them coming in, I’ll update this later today):
Who Am I?
I'm an individual investor from Kansas City. My focus is on biotech stocks, but I enjoy investing in all industries. I'm an old-school, buy and hold investor who believes the best way to outperform and grow capital is to own innovative companies with good management teams over the long-term. more>>