(Bloomberg) — Celsius Holdings Inc.’s quarterly results were sitting online, waiting to give anyone who looked a sneak peek at the earnings that would set off a 20% rally in the energy-drink company’s stock price.
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Not many people, it seems, knew they were there.
The company, which has a market value of about $19 billion, was scheduled to release its fourth-quarter and full-year results at 6 a.m. New York time on Thursday.
But they appeared on Celsius’s website Wednesday night shortly after 7 p.m., with screenshots later circulating on X. The stock edged higher around that time, but on featherweight volumes. Trading picked up right at 6 a.m. Thursday, with shares falling more than 5% premarket before surging during the regular session by the most since August. They ended the day at an all-time high.
A spokesperson for Celsius declined to comment.
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It appears to be the latest blunder of what’s been a fairly gaffe-heavy earnings season, with notable clerical errors in reports from Lyft Inc., Planet Fitness Inc., Mister Car Wash Inc. and Rivian Automotive Inc. The companies had to issue corrections, and the changes in some cases sent shares swinging.
And, this week, Cava Group Inc. released its own fourth quarter results a day early after a news outlet published a story on their earnings Monday afternoon. Cava had been scheduled to report results Tuesday after market close.
Of course, even if investors did see Celsius’s report when it became available Wednesday night, they may not have been able to trade on it at the time and would’ve waited until Thursday’s premarket session, said Kenneth Polcari, chief market strategist at Slatestone Wealth LLC.
“I think it’s just sloppy,” Polcari said of the early release. “But I don’t think anyone was disadvantaged.”
Regulators do not often consider honest mistakes made by companies to be securities fraud. But, in recent years, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has put increased scrutiny on the systems and procedures in place at companies that are designed to prevent errors.
–With assistance from Austin Weinstein, Katrina Compoli and Janet Freund.
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