Earnings calls with the Wall Street set can be interesting for what’s not said. And yesterday’s party line with Barr was a case in point, says Bob Uhl, a drug-industry analyst at Friedman Billings Ramsey, in an investor note this morning.

Uhl headlines his missive “Details Lacking.” Here’s what Barr didn’t discuss - there was no 2007 earnings forecast based on generally accepted accounting principles; there was no guidance on the tax rate, ‘other than to say that it is complicated, depends on many moving parts, and it is affected by various regions around the world;’ and unlike in the past, there was no breakdown of sales results for individual products.

“This lack of communication, unlike Barr’s history, may have spooked investors and had a negative impact on the share price,” Uhl writes with great understatement. Barr stock slid slid $2.05, or 3.7 percent, to close at $52.90 yesterday.

Why didn’t the Barr team say more? Why don’t they know better than to ignore so many obvious matters? Did they really think no one would notice? Moreover, what secrets may they be hiding? Great way to build investor confidence, isn’t it?

[tags]Barr Laboratories[/tags]