The following configuration works:
machine code.mycompany.net
login supernerd
password HelloW0rld
The following configuration doesn't work:
machine code.mycompany.net
login supernerd
password Please excuse my dear aunt sally.
From this bug report (now python/cpython issue 36615) or this page, spaces in password don't seem to be supported in a .netrc (or _netrc) file.
Or even if they are, not all the programs using that .netrc file will be able to interpret said space correctly.
As runrig mentions in the comments:
Quoting the field as in another answer here should work, but the python library doesn't like it.
But, e.g., command lineftpand theperl netrclibrary is fine with it.
So this should work when used when those commands:
password "Please excuse my dear aunt sally."