Press releases and quarterly reports

Many of the blogs in Workathon and all in my other blog called Blogdaleupsome have gotten their data from company press releases and their quarterly reports.At first the data did jive with other data such as the price of the stock and other corporate information.But gradually the information was not coroborating as much with other external data.Other press releases started to show less and less logic;in fact,they became confusing in some cases.Their forecasts of revenues and earnings were hard to believe.
           It is hard to shake the tendency for companies to tell their shareholders that things are going well and earnings will be 10 to 25% better next quarter.Especially when writers like me believe them and tell the same story.It is ,of course,incumbent on writers to check their data and make sure it is as correct as possible.Sometimes all companies have to estimate certain values;this will always be the case.
     Experience is worth a 1000 words
   The Chinese proverb is that a picture is worth 1000 words.But every writer knows that experience is also worth 1000 words.I used to work in the federal government and I am used to the situation where the data in one department does not jive with that of another department.It was always better to use Statistics Canada data when you could get it;it was always more reliable.When you could not get Statistics Canada data you had to blend data from two uncertain sources.This is what I must do here is blend data from broker's database and from company press releases.Where possible check data in a quarterly report against company data.However now Workathon will likely have less reporting of company press releases and quarterly reports.That will be the domaine of my other blog called Blogdaleupsome.
       The Crocodile Gold Syndrome
   Sometimes it is possible to get data or information in a press release that is nowhere else found.This situation I saw several times.The first time I came across it was for Crocodile Gold.This stock trades on the TSX.They had purchased two mines that they had estimated to get two years production from.They did some exploratory work and found(supposedly) a huge ore body.No final estimate was given but it could have been as big as 4 to 5 million ounces.The stock was trading at about$.20 per share and once I reported this I expected the share price to move towards $1.00 per share.But it now trades at only $.35 per share.Still this situation has not been clarified.Is the ore body as described or is it not.No other news source has reported the actual size of the discovery.
  This situation also occurred to other companies such as Twin Butte and Chorus Aviation.News reported only in press releases  and nowhere else reported.Often the news is beneficial to the stock but rarely does the share price react.Twin Butte ,for example, bought a company with light oil resources.They found multi-layering of oil pools and oil pools not discovered by the previous company.The stock should have moved up considerably but it moved down to it's present level of about $.85 per share.Was the quarterly report wrong or did something else explain this behaviour?So,in conclusion, always check the data in a company's press releases,if you can.