Roth downgraded on the retail/stores nonsense, CHBT was pulling off there. (see my comment an throwerw's investor day report).
"We are downgrading shares of CHBT to SELL (from BUY) based on expectations for continued market pressure due to a lack of clarity into the company's retail operations."
Roth said that "based on our quick review of the materials (given 40+ participants on site), the tax documents (revealing tax payments for the past several quarters) and bank statements (reflecting cash balances in the company's bank accounts) appeared consistent with the company's SEC filings."
The issue seems to be CHBT's nonsense-like refusal to publicly disclose their 60+ stand-alone retail stores. According to investor day participants they have those stores (other than shelf-space in some supermarkets), but the addresses on their website were only a part of many hundred distributor's sales points.
Roth concluded that "the company's recent communication regarding its retail operations was not adequate to support definitive conclusions regarding the magnitude of the [retail] business."
I think it is entirely ridiculous that the company claims to have 60+ stand-alone stores with 200+ employees, yet refuses to once and for all prove their existence by openly disclosing all the addresses and they better do that with an apology.
Roth also wrote that "management also indicated that the company has shut down a significant number of retail outlets since June 2010." - oh really? They "indicated" that. What is there to "indicate"? Why can't management give EXACT numbers of current stores, recently closed stores, current retail operations and sales on an INVESTOR DAY? They said they don't want investors to "focus on retail operations" as this would only be a fraction of their total business. But that is utter nonsense, investors focus on whatever they want and management has to provide such basic details or they lose their credibility. Those short sellers attacks were based entirely on their retail operations, and apparently they sent investors home from their investor day with "please don't focus on that", we'd rather want to fade it out quickly.
AI
