Cleveland-Cliffs CEO Lourenco Goncalves berated Wall Street analysts and investors betting against his stock during the company's third-quarter earnings conference call on Friday, saying they "can't read numbers."
Referring to an unspecified individual, he added that the company's stock buybacks "are going to screw this guy so badly that ... they will have to commit suicide."
Goncalves' rant began after the first analyst question on the earnings call.
"It's unbelievable that this big banks has still employ this type of people, you should resign for your lack of knowledge of things, it's not like that you don't understand, you are very one of the best, it's not like you don't understand our business , you don't understand your own business. You are a disaster. You are an embarrassment to your parents. With this being said, we are going to use money to reward the long-term shareholders. So, if the stock continues to go down based on these kids that play with computers and somebody else's money, we are going to buy back stock. 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. So we are going to screw this guy so badly that will be fun to watch. That will be my first priority other than the two top priorities of finishing HBI and paying down debt. You are meeting with the wrong guy. That's my message to you. I'm going to exactly what I have been doing in Nashwauk for a while."
Goncalves specifically went after Goldman Sachs analyst Matthew Korn, saying "you can run but you can't hide." Korn has a 'hold' rating on the shares.
The chief executive appears to be upset at the stock's initial reaction to the company's third-quarter results. The stock fell nearly 6 percent on Friday even after reporting an increase in profit and improving revenue. Excluding some items however, earnings per share in the period were 64 cents, below the 66-cent consensus estimate from analysts, according to FactSet.
The company bills itself as the largest and oldest iron ore miner in the U.S. on its website.
Cleveland-Cliffs did not immediately respond to a CNBC request for comment. Goldman Sachs declined to comment.
This story is developing. Please check back for updates.
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