10 least candid companies

Rittenhouse Rankings thinks that “clear and transparent language in investor letters is indicative of reliable performance.”

Based on those criteria, the agency ranked the ten least candid companies in America.

Here’s the list:

1. Cigna Corp.
2. Humana Inc.
3. Hewlett-Packard Co.
4. Bank of America Corp.
5. L’Oreal S.A.
6. Avon Products Inc.
7. Tim Hortons Inc.
8. Cisco Systems Inc.
9. American International Group, Inc.
10. ConAgra Foods Inc.

One trait the shareholder letters of all these companies shared was “a large amount of unspecific jargon,” according to Rittenhouse. The least-candid company on the list, Cigna, used “rhetorical nonsense,” the agency said.