Take the Words of a CEO with a Grain of Salt

It's dangerous to listen to what a CEO says, for example on quarterly conference calls. CEOs tend to be naturally optimistic and also tend to be great at sales and marketing. In addition, they have an incentive to paint a rosy picture of the outlook. Furthermore, they have a better understanding of their business than you do, so their reasons for being optimistic will be persuasive. A better approach is to judge the CEO based on his/her past performance. If there's a long historical track record, that's much more instructive.