CKE shareholders deserve better than this... Market reaction to the year end results were to my mind strangely muted given the not very exciting annual report.
On the other hand just look what happened at AltaGas, Crescent Point and BonaVista. They all announced some pretty good numbers - only to see the share price tank on the news. Seems the “downtick” gang are using any breaking news - good or bad - to hit the market.
In our case they would be generally aided in this by our resident trolls - JDavies (in one guise or another), his deputy Bouquets and the obnoxious Ferret.
They just love to exploit CKE’s practice of issuing ambivalent reports - or simply no reports at all - on critical issues. Take for example the trolls recent exploitation of the pipeline situation - dredging up a irrelevant 2016 pipeline “incident” and hinting that the problems with the Oak line could completely shut in production.
Another favourite is to take advantage of the general ignorance of accounting terms - using for example the term “surplus / deficit” - which they like to imply represents cash in the bank. Another is the “accounts payable” item to claim that CKE is about to run out of cash - conveniently neglecting to disclose that this number actually refers to “Accounts payable, accrued liabilities & other“ - some of which may not be payable immediately in cash - if ever.
Back in November Stockfy came up with an estimate that CKE would have $10 million cash in the bank end 2017. He was roundly trounced for this by JDavis who accused him of being a liar and dishonest - claiming instead that CKE would be deep in the hole end 2017. Bouquets had to leap in to calm things down - republishing the slur but suggesting perhaps that Stockfy had just made a honest mistake (November 17, 2017). My guess at the time was around $5 to $11 million cash in the bank depending on how much gas CKE could ship. I subsequently revised this down to $5 to $8 million after the Oak pipeline problem was announced. (January 21, 2018). Final number for cash in the bank? $4.341 million. But to find this one has to go retrieve the Sedar report. Not a word in the news report. Amazing!
This is simply not acceptable. In my opinion CKE would be less exposed to share manipulation and misinformation if the public was kept better informed - both in quality, quantity and the regularity of information shared. The cash and pipeline situation are both critical. Remember the potential cash position was one of the reasons Raymond James downgraded the share. Still no word about what if anything CKE intends to do with that recent pipeline acquisition. Still no word about what plans (if any) there are to link into Aitkens. Some word about pipeline commitments - for this at least we should be grateful.
CKE has a good story to tell. Peyto is trading in my opinion well above its weight. The reason for this I am sure is because they keep shareholders well and regularly informed through their Presidents letter. Worth reading every month even if one is not a shareholder.
Anyone out there who could come to the rescue of CKE own loyal but battered band of shareholders?
How about management? Seemingly not much hope there. Jobs are scarce in Calgary these days. No reason for them to encourage a take over. Much more sensible to continue with a monthly pay check and those annual awards of options priced at around 20c. Seriously - what motivation have they to encourage an immediate move in the share price to 30c let alone 60c ?
How about the Board then? No luck there either I am afraid. With one exception ( Mr P Grant Wierzba) none of the independent directors have invested in more than 50 thousand shares. The have options galore - but that in my opinion is not quite the same thing.
When I suggested here on Stockhouse that we all drop a line to our Chair asking for an improvement in the quality of information being provided - my proposal had only one positive reaction - from Graphene. Thank you Graphene for that.
All round CKE shareholders deserve better - but then perhaps, in part, they have only themselves to blame.