Contrarian Corpus

68 documents showing 1–60

Elliott Management 2025-05-01

Phillips 66 PSX

Phillips 66's dilutive midstream pivot has destroyed TSR versus refining peers; a midstream spin and refreshed governance — as at Marathon and Suncor — can unlock the buried value.

N4 V4 C4
Kerrisdale Capital 2025-01-29

ACM Research, Inc. ACMR

ACMR trades at 1.1x revenue while its 82%-owned Shanghai subsidiary ACMS trades at 6x — a sum-of-parts gap that implies a 10-bagger as China's WFE self-sufficiency drive accelerates.

N4 V2 C2
Soroban 2023-02-22

Union Pacific Corporation UNP

UNP owns the best Class I rail franchise but ranks worst on every metric under CEO Lance Fritz; bringing back operator Jim Vena could double the stock to ~$400 by 2025.

N5 V4 C4
Starboard Value 2022-03-08

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Huntsman failed all 2016 and 2018 Investor Day EBITDA and share-price promises

N4 V4 C3
Starboard Value 2022-02-28

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Huntsman returned just 80% since its 2005 IPO vs. 642-822% for peers, a ~562% deficit under CEO Peter Huntsman

N5 V4 C4
Starboard Value 2022-02-10

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Huntsman has underperformed peers by 575% since IPO and missed three straight Investor Day targets; elect four Starboard nominees on the BLUE card to restore board accountability.

N3 V2 C2
Starboard Value 2022-01-12

Huntsman Corporation HUN

A decade of missed EBITDA targets: 2014, 2016 and 2018 Investor Day aspirations all unmet

N4 V2 C2
Starboard Value 2022-01-12

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Three consecutive Investor Days (2014, 2016, 2018) missed EBITDA targets by hundreds of millions

N4 V2 C2
TCI Fund 2021-08-31

Canadian National Railway CNI

CN, once the best-run Class I railroad, is now the worst under CEO Ruest; abandon the KCS deal and install Jim Vena to restore operational excellence.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2021-08-16

Box, Inc. BOX

Box has chronically lagged peers and entrenched itself via an unnecessary $500M KKR preferred financing; electing Starboard's minority slate restores stockholder accountability and unlocks long-term value.

N4 V2 C1
Starboard Value 2021-08-06

Box, Inc. BOX

Box is a best-of-breed cloud content platform that has missed every revenue target since IPO; a reconstituted board can fix go-to-market execution and close a massive valuation gap to peers.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2020-05-11

GCP Applied Technologies GCP

Starboard rebuts GCP: stock has lagged peers on every milestone since the 2016 spin-off, and Starboard's superior director slate can finally drive the turnaround management hasn't delivered.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2020-04-30

GCP Applied Technologies GCP

Four years post-spinoff, GCP has lagged peers on growth, margins, and stock price under an insular, interconnected Board; replace nine directors and unlock ~600 bps of EBIT margin expansion.

N4 V3 C3
Pershing Square 2020-02-05

Pershing Square Holdings (fund) — portfolio includes Agilent, Berkshire Hathaway, Chipotle, Hilton, Restaurant Brands, Lowe's, Howard Hughes, Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac PSH

PSH delivered 58.1% NAV return in 2019, beating S&P by 2,660bps — return to roots is working

N3 V4 C3
Elliott Management 2019-09-24

Marathon Petroleum Corporation MPC

Separating Marathon into three independent businesses unlocks $22-$40bn of value (60%+ upside)

N5 V4 C4
Muddy Waters 2019-05-24

Casino Guichard-Perrachon CO

Rallye, Finatis, Euris and Foncière Euris entering procédure de sauvegarde vindicates MW's 2015 warnings

N3 V1 C1
Muddy Waters 2019-05-24

Casino Guichard-Perrachon CO

Rallye's safeguard filing vindicates Muddy Waters' 2015 warning that Casino was being hollowed out to sustain Jean-Charles Naouri's parasitic, debt-laden holding structure.

N3 V1 C1
Carl Icahn 2018-11-15

Dell Technologies (Class V / DVMT tracking stock) DVMT

Dell's $109 buyout of the DVMT tracker is really $90 — a 42% discount engineered to transfer $11bn from public holders to Michael Dell and Silver Lake. Vote no.

N4 V3 C3
Citron Research 2018-08-21

NVIDIA Corporation NVDA

NVDA, up 600% since 2016, faces in-house silicon from every mega-customer, collapsing crypto and autonomous narratives, and a benchmark-less Turing launch — shares revert to $200.

N4 V2 C2
Muddy Waters 2018-07-02

TAL Education Group TAL

TAL inflated Firstleap's acquired deferred revenue by 90-175%, pumping $21-29M of fake profit through FY2017 via an above-the-line accounting lever obscured by an overlooked small acquisition.

N4 V2 C1
Muddy Waters 2018-06-13

TAL Education Group TAL

TAL is a real business with fake financials: two asset-parking transactions inflated FY2016-FY2018 pre-tax profits by $153M (28.4%) while Deloitte China was starved of audit hours.

N5 V2 C2
Carl Icahn 2018-05-24

SandRidge Energy SD

SandRidge trades at a ~45% discount to its own PV-10 because the post-bankruptcy 'bankruptcy board' destroys value via dilutive deals; replace it with Icahn's slate to run a real sale process.

N4 V3 C3
Elliott Management 2018-04-23

Hyundai Motor Group (Hyundai Mobis, Hyundai Motor Company, Kia Motors) 012330.KS / 005380.KS / 000270.KS

Mobis, HMC and Kia trade at 57%, 26% and 73% EV/EBITDA discounts to global peers — peers re-rate if structure is fixed

N5 V4 C4
Starboard Value 2018-02-13

Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc. TYPE

Monotype's three-year acquisition spree (Olapic, Swyft) destroyed $500M+ of value and halved EBITDA margins; Starboard demands four new directors to refocus on the core font franchise.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2018-02-12

Newell Brands Inc. NWL

Starboard, backed by Jarden's founders, seeks to replace Newell's board after CEO Michael Polk destroyed $11bn of value following the 2016 Jarden merger.

N4 V2 C2
Muddy Waters 2018-02-08

IQE plc IQE

Muddy Waters is short IQE: the compound-semi maker inflated 2015/2016 net income by 58.5%/25.4% via transactions with its Cardiff University JV — an alter ego, not an arm's-length partner.

N4 V2 C2
Muddy Waters 2018-01-31

OSI Systems OSIS

OSIS's rebuttal fails: S2 Albania's financials prove ICMS contributed no capital, making its 49% concession stake an unjustified conduit for corruption and confirming management's lost credibility.

N4 V1 C1
Spruce Point Capital 2018-01-25

Ballard Power Systems BLDP

Ballard's 167% 2017 rally rests on a fragile China fuel-cell story with weak partners and zero insider skin; expect a repeat of the Azure failure and 35-70% downside to $1.15-$2.50.

N4 V3 C3
Muddy Waters 2017-12-20

China Internet Nationwide Financial Services Inc. CIFS

CIFS is an old-style China reverse-merger fraud dressed up as a Reg A+ IPO; SAIC filings show 5x revenue overstatement, every disclosed borrower is a sham, and the equity is worthless.

N4 V2 C2
Muddy Waters 2017-06-29

Prothena Corp PLC PRTA

Short PRTA: publicly-available NEOD001 data does not show efficacy — organ responses are likely driven by prior PCD chemo, not the drug, and $1.5B peak sales are unrealistic.

N4 V2 C2
Marcato 2017-04-20

Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD

Sally Smith-led BWLD has underperformed peers, mismanaged margins, and wasted capital buying back franchise stores; replacing the board and refranchising to 90% unlocks a higher multiple.

N5 V4 C4
Pershing Square 2017-01-26

Portfolio-wide update (Mondelez, Air Products, Restaurant Brands, Chipotle, Howard Hughes, Fannie/Freddie, Valeant, Herbalife short, Platform Specialty, Nomad, CP, Zoetis)

Mondelez EBIT margin of 15.4% sits ~1,200bps below Kraft Heinz's 27.6% — a fixable gap

N3 V3 C2
Pershing Square 2017-01-26

Multiple (PSH portfolio update)

Long-term track record intact: 503% cumulative vs S&P 163% since 2004 inception

N3 V3 C3
Ancora 2017-01-24

Edgewater Technology, Inc. EDGW

Edgewater's entrenched legacy board has overpaid two underperforming executives for 14 years; replacing four directors with Ancora's slate unlocks a turnaround in this sub-scale IT consultant.

N4 V3 C2
Muddy Waters 2016-12-19

China Huishan Dairy Holdings 6863.HK

Huishan's revenue is fabricated: tax-bureau data, cow-farm photos, and e-commerce scrapes all show the reported top line is dramatically overstated — the stock is a zero.

N4 V2 C2
Muddy Waters 2016-12-13

Nidec Corp. 6594 JP

Nidec is a gigantic stock promotion: zero organic growth and aggressive accounting hide behind a Facebook-like multiple — fair value JPY 4,764, ~52% downside.

N5 V2 C2
Elliott Management 2016-11-28

Cognizant Technology Solutions CTSH

Cognizant has deliberately capped margins at 19-20% for 20 years while revenue grew 70x

N4 V3 C3
Land & Buildings 2016-10-26

Taubman Centers, Inc. TCO

Taubman's sudden reversal on Board size is reactive and disingenuous; any new director must be vetted by shareholders and be truly independent of the Taubman family.

N2 V2 C1
Land & Buildings 2016-10-06

MGM Resorts International MGM

MGM's discredited CEO Murren was just handed a pay-for-showing-up contract; replacing him and unlocking real-estate value via MGM China, CityCenter and Bellagio sales delivers 35%+ upside.

N3 V1 C1
Starboard Value 2016-09-12

Perrigo Company plc PRGO

Perrigo lost half its value after rejecting Mylan's $205 bid; divesting Rx and Tysabri royalty, fixing BCH margins, and restoring credibility can re-rate the stock to consumer-staples peers.

N4 V3 C3
Muddy Waters 2016-08-29

St. Jude Medical STJ

STJ's rebuttal to Muddy Waters' cybersecurity short report is 80% fluff and 20% substance, with admissions and deception cues that confirm its cardiac devices remain unsafe and need recall.

N4 V1 C1
Muddy Waters 2016-08-25

St. Jude Medical, Inc. STJ

St. Jude's $23B cardiac-device franchise rests on a Merlin ecosystem so insecure that hackers can crash pacemakers from 50 feet — a recall and two-year remediation imply 50%+ downside and likely covenant breach.

N5 V2 C2
Sandell 2016-08-22

Bob Evans Farms, Inc. BOBE

Bob Evans trades at $37 while its packaged-foods segment alone is worth $1.2-1.6bn; spinning off Restaurants leaves a pure-play BEF Foods parent worth $57-79 per share.

N4 V3 C2
Muddy Waters 2016-08-10

Ströer SE & Co. KGaA SAX

Muddy Waters publishes the translated transcript of Ströer's June 2016 AGM, where CEO Udo Müller defends the company against MW's short attack amid sharp shareholder questions.

N3 V1 C1
Pershing Square 2016-07-20

Herbalife HLF

FTC complaint confirms Herbalife operates as a pyramid scheme

N4 V3 C3
Marcato 2016-06-13

Buffalo Wild Wings BWLD

Buffalo Wild Wings should reverse course on low-return franchisee buy-ins, refranchise to 90% by 2020, recapitalize, and fix incentives — unlocking ~180% upside to ~$402.

N4 V4 C4
Muddy Waters 2016-04-28

Stroer SE & Co. KGaA SAX

Stroer's defense fails to rebut Muddy Waters' core allegations of overstated organic growth, misleading cash-flow netting and freeXmedia self-dealing, with a CIA polygrapher flagging Muller's response as deceptive.

N4 V1 C1
Pershing Square 2016-04-26

Multiple (portfolio-level LP update: MDLZ, APD, ZTS, QSR, CP, HHC, VRX, PAH, FNMA/FMCC, NOMD, HLF)

Mondelez margin gap to peers (13% vs 17-26%) implies +600-700bps of optimized EBIT upside

N3 V3 C3
Pershing Square 2016-04-26

Multiple (Pershing Square portfolio: MDLZ, APD, ZTS, QSR, CP, HHC, VRX, NOMD, HLF-short)

Mondelez EBIT margin of 13.1% is far below peers (Kraft Heinz 26.5%, Hershey 20.0%) and well short of 3G playbook results

N3 V3 C2
Marcato 2016-04-06

Epiq Systems, Inc. EPIQ

Epiq's board has insulated management through chronic guidance misses, a failed Iris acquisition and governance entrenchment; electing Villere's alternate slate is the unique opportunity to unlock value.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2016-03-24

Yahoo! Inc. YHOO

Yahoo's board has failed for years on operations, capital allocation, and governance; replace it with Starboard's nine nominees to run a credible Core Business sale and unlock value.

N3 V2 C1
Pershing Square 2016-03-21

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. VRX

N1 V2 C1
Pershing Square 2016-03-21

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. VRX

N1 V2 C1
Engaged Capital 2016-02-18

Outerwall Inc. OUTR

Outerwall's cash-rich Redbox/Coinstar business trades at a 3x EBITDA capital-allocation discount; halting buybacks for a large dividend and running a sale process unlocks 150%+ upside.

N4 V3 C3
Elliott Management 2016-02-04

Bank of East Asia, Limited 0023.HK

BEA delivered 2.7% annualised return since 1997 vs 12.8% for family-run HK bank peers

N4 V4 C4
Muddy Waters 2016-01-13

Groupe Casino CO

Casino is a highly-levered, deteriorating French retailer being hollowed out by controlling shareholder Naouri and using property-sale gains to inflate EBITDA; equity worth ~€7 per share.

N4 V2 C1
SpringOwl 2016-01-13

Viacom VIAB

Viacom's absent chair Redstone and overpaid CEO Dauman have driven a lost decade; replacing leadership, cutting $400M SG&A and launching OTT unlocks up to 135% upside to $95.90.

N4 V2 C2
Starboard Value 2016-01-06

Yahoo! Inc. YHOO

Three years of failed turnaround have collapsed Yahoo's Core Business; Starboard demands a competitive sale process and leadership change, or it will launch an election contest.

N4 V2 C2
SpringOwl 2015-12-01

Yahoo! Inc. YHOO

Yahoo's Core is mismanaged but fixable — replace Mayer with an operator CEO, cut headcount two-thirds, bring Liberty in as a partner, and shares triple from $35 to $113.

N4 V3 C3
Oasis Management 2015-07-01

Japanese listed companies (market-level)

Japan's twin Corporate Governance and Stewardship Codes, paired with strong Companies Act shareholder rights, will drive an ROE revolution making Japan one of the best long-term equity markets.

N3 V3 C2