'You are messing with the wrong guy': The CEO of Cleveland-Cliffs eviscerates Goldman Sachs analyst and short sellers
- Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves took time out of his company's third-quarter earnings call to attack a Goldman Sachs analyst and short sellers.
- It's not the first time Goncalves had a contentious moment with an analyst on an earnings call.
- Watch Cleveland-Cliffs stock trade in real time here.
The CEO of the American iron-ore mining company Cleveland-Cliffs took time out from his company's third-quarter earnings call on Friday morning to attack an analyst from Goldman Sachs and short sellers.
CEO Lourenco Goncalves stopped the call and said, "Matthew Korn, if you are in the call, it is still 10:42, why don't you ask a freaking question? I will be happy to answer. Okay."
He was referring to the Goldman Sachs analyst who covers his company and had an $11 price target - just below both the Wall Street estimate and where shares were trading at the time.
After a few questions came from other analysts, Goncalves turned his attention back to Korn and also towards short sellers. Here's a transcript of the call via Bloomberg (emphasis ours):
When asked by Bloomberg's Joe Deaux about why he had taken aim at Korn, Goncalves didn't hold back. "The Goldman Sachs commodities desk has been wrong about iron ore prices, years in a row," he said.
"Last year in the Goldman Sachs annual conference, I called him out and I said, 'next year you've got to come here to the stage and let's debate iron ore on the stage.' And I called them out and I reminded Matthew Korn, because the conference is coming, reminding Korn that this year he's going to have to bring his big brother from the commodities desk because I want to debate them in person, live. Let's see who's right and who's wrong."
It's not the first time Goncalves has had a contentious moment with an analyst on an earnings call. In October 2014, he refused to answer Wells Fargo analyst Sam Dubinsky's question, saying "you already know everything about my company."
He added: "You have a $4 price target and you think we can't sell assets, so I'm going to take the next question, I'm not going to answer you."