by Calculated Risk on 12/05/2006 03:22:00 PM

From Yahoo: Toll Brothers Earnings Conference Call (Q4 2006)

Credit Suisse's Ivy Zellman asked the best questions (starts at 50 minutes 30 seconds), including a few funny remarks:

"Which Kool-aid are you drinking?"

She challenged Toll Chairman Bob Toll about his optimism this morning, and Mr. Toll responded:

"I didn't mean to project optimism."

And she made this comment directly to Bob Toll (who sold a significant amount of stock in the Summer of 2005):

"I think a lot of people, if they ever follow you Bob, and your buying and selling personally, they made a lot of money."

I've been on both sides of conference calls, and the Toll team seemed unprofessional to me at times. Update: As I noted in the comments, at times they seemed disorganized and they seemed to stray from their talking points. As an example, at one point Mr. Toll mentioned that demand would increase in D.C. because of the recently elected Congressman and Senators. Of course just as many ex-Congressman and Senators will probably be leaving D.C., so it was difficult to understand how this would impact their business in a material way. It seemed like Mr. Toll was winging it - I doubt this was a key talking point for the company.

Disclaimer: I have no position in Toll.