Green Mountain Coffee Slips Lower After T2’s Tilson Comments on SEC Probe

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR) has had a rough October. The coffee giant popular for its Keurig K-Cups has fallen almost 30% since October 1, 2011. It went from trading at $92.94 a share to $65.44 at close October 27, 2011.

It Started at the Value Investing Congress

David Einhorn gave a speech denouncing the coffee company on October 17. Einhorn criticized GMCR for its “poor transparency,” “accounting discrepancies,” confusing quarterly financial presentations and June quarterly results that look “too good to be true.” He also said that “capital spending is growing much faster than the business,” adding, “management has been incredibly vague about where the money is going.” Prior to Einhorn’s comments, GMCR stock was solidly above $92 a share. The share price fell over 24% in the first days after the speech ($92.09 to $69.80) and just continued downward.

Then There was Tilson

On October 26, GMCR shares slid even lower after Whitney Tilson, founding and managing director of the hedge fund T2 Partners, “told CNBC there may be potential for accounting fraud at the company,” reports Bloomberg. The shares fell another 4.9% to settle at $61.59, its lowest since March 21. Specifically, Bloomberg writes that Tilson said of the SEC probe against GMCR, “We think that they are going to find something.” Tilson also said that his fund was shorting the stock.