North America - It's not particularly surprising that analysts sometimes think executives are spouting BS, but it's rare to hear one actually say it on an earnings call.
 
It isn't clear who uttered the profanity on Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.'s first-quarter conference call Tuesday, but it appeared to surprise the company's executives, given the long, awkward, silence that followed.
 
Here's what happened:  TD analyst Cherilyn Radbourne asked chief financial officer Bart Demosky to explain how the company calculates its adjusted earnings per share.
 
Demosky said it's related to the U.S.-dollar-denominated debt on its balance sheet.
 
"Each quarter we simply have to translate that back into Canadian dollars but that debt will remain part of our balance sheet going forward, so it's not something anybody needs to be concerned about," Demosky said.
 
"It's simply a translation item and it's non-core so it needs to be adjusted out to understand the performance of the business."
 
Immediately following Demosky's explanation, a male voice quite clearly said, "Bullshit."
 
After the next question and answer, Demosky jumped back in to remark on the "extremely inappropriate comment" and to assure listeners that it was not a CP executive who said it.
 
This is by no means the first time profanity has been heard on an earnings call.
 
Encana Corp. was forced to apologize in 2013 after one of its executives whispered "f**king asshole" following an analyst question about foreign takeovers.
 
According to a Bloomberg analysis of profanity on conference calls between 2004 and 2014, CEO cursing spiked after the recession in 2009 and waned as the economy strengthened.

Kristine Owram.