Criteo (NSDQ: CRTO) is one of the holdings in Profit Catalyst Alert’s portfolio. The stock has been clobbered due to a damaging report published by Gotham City Research, who may have a short position in the stock.

I contacted Criteo’s investor relations department who replied quickly. The statement mirrors what I have seen in Criteo’s numbers to date. The numbers do not show the signs of stress one would expect if the company was engaged in fraudulent behavior.

Although no one from the company was available for comment, they provided the following statement:

The allegations published by Gotham City include a number of unsubstantiated and false claims directed at Criteo and its business model. Criteo’s 90%+ customer retention rate demonstrates that our system not only provides real value for our clients but sets the global standard. Ensuring high traffic quality is a key component of Criteo’s business model. Criteo regularly conducts external audits with renowned third parties on its traffic which do not correlate with the accusations of Gotham City’s report. By his own admission, the author’s motive for publishing the report seems to be to obtain financial gains by short selling Criteo’s stock and to entice other investors to adopt the same conduct. The author failed to seek clarification from Criteo regarding any of the facts and assumptions relating to Criteo’s business model before writing the report. Criteo, in line with our policy, will not comment further on market rumor and speculation.