Contrarian Corpus

399 documents showing 121–180

Muddy Waters 2024-02-15

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. FFH

Muddy Waters poses five forensic questions to Fairfax management that, if answered honestly, would expose return-of-capital dividends, off-balance-sheet debt via NCIs, and fair-value gain engineering.

N3 V1 C1
Starboard Value 2024-02-13

Kenvue Inc. KVUE

Kenvue is an iconic consumer-health portfolio underperforming its potential — fixing margins and Skin Health & Beauty execution can close a wide valuation gap to Haleon and staples peers.

N4 V3 C3
Muddy Waters 2024-02-08

Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. FFH

Muddy Waters is short Fairfax Financial, arguing it is 'the GE of Canada' — a serial accounting manipulator whose book value is overstated by ~$4.5bn (~18%) through value-destructive transactions.

N4 V3 C2
Pershing Square 2024-02-08

Pershing Square Holdings (own closed-end fund review) PSH

PSH trades at a 27% discount to NAV despite 31.2% 5-yr compound NAV return

N2 V4 C3
Ancora 2024-02-01

Elanco Animal Health ELAN

Elanco has destroyed billions under CEO Simmons and an insular classified board; replacing four directors at the 2024 AGM installs accountability and unlocks the animal-health turnaround.

N4 V4 C4
Starboard Value 2024-01-31

GoDaddy Inc. GDDY

GoDaddy is a high-quality infrastructure business trading at a wide FCF-multiple discount; committing to 40% growth-plus-profitability and buying back stock unlocks $170-$200+ per share.

N3 V2 C2
Muddy Waters 2024-01-22

CPI Property Group S.A. CPIPGR

Muddy Waters is short CPI Property Group's credit: its €19.2B portfolio appears inflated via implausible Berlin gains, cherry-picked Bubny landbank comps, and occupancy rates realtor listings show are overstated by ~2x.

N4 V3 C3
Engine Capital 2024-01-22

Parkland Corporation PKI

Parkland's entrenched board has driven a decade of peer underperformance and a sector-low 6.9x multiple; a shareholder-led board refreshment is needed to close the valuation gap.

N4 V2 C2
Palliser Capital 2023-12-06

Samsung C&T Corporation 028260 KS

Samsung C&T trades at a 63% discount to its $40.4bn NAV; fixing capital allocation, governance and the opaque group structure closes a $25bn value gap worth ~170% upside.

N5 V4 C4
Elliott Management 2023-11-29

Phillips 66 PSX

Phillips 66 has lost investor trust by taking its eye off refining; adding two refining-experienced directors — and Marathon's 2019 playbook if targets slip — unlocks ~75% upside to $205+.

N4 V2 C2
Starboard Value 2023-10-18

GoDaddy Inc. GDDY

GoDaddy is a scale-leading infrastructure business trading at 11x FCF; replaying Starboard's Splunk/Wix/Salesforce margin-expansion playbook can close a 37% peer gap and re-rate the stock.

N4 V3 C3
Palliser Capital 2023-10-17

Keisei Electric Railway 9009 JT

Keisei's 22% stake in Oriental Land hides $4.5bn of value; right-sizing it below 15% and adopting a capital allocation framework unlocks 76% upside for shareholders.

N4 V4 C4
Ancora 2023-10-17

Forward Air Corporation FWRD

Forward Air's $3.2B Omni Logistics deal destroys shareholder value; block the deal, replace CEO Tom Schmitt and the Board, and shares rerate to $140-$145.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2023-10-17

GoDaddy GDDY

GoDaddy missed its 2022 Investor Day commitments as Tech & Development costs ballooned; cutting costs to hit 33%+ EBITDA margins re-rates FCF/share to $10+ and closes the peer-multiple gap.

N3 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2023-10-17

GoDaddy, News Corp, Fortrea

Starboard pitches three ideas: News Corp should separate Digital Real Estate to unlock ~50% upside, GoDaddy should expand margins to 33%+, and Fortrea can hit 18% peer margins under Tom Pike.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2023-10-13

Multiple (GoDaddy, News Corp, Fortrea) GDDY, NWSA, FTRE

Starboard pitches three activist ideas at the 2023 13D Monitor Summit — GoDaddy margin expansion, News Corp digital-real-estate separation, and Fortrea CRO profitability fix — each with 50%+ upside.

N4 V3 C3
Bluebell Capital 2023-10-04

BP plc BP

BP trades at a 44% discount to US majors because Looney's pivot away from oil & gas destroys value; reverse the strategy, return capital, and unlock 50%+ upside.

N4 V2 C1
Starboard Value 2023-10-01

News Corporation NWSA

News Corp's REA stake alone is worth $8B of its $12B EV — separating Digital Real Estate would expose Dow Jones and surface ~50% upside to ~$33/share.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2023-10-01

Bloomin' Brands BLMN

Bloomin' Brands trades at 5.0x EBITDA vs Darden's 9.5x because of operational execution failures at Outback; Starboard's Darden playbook can narrow the gap and unlock shareholder value.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2023-10-01

Fortrea Holdings Inc. FTRE

Fortrea, LabCorp's spun-out CRO, earns 9% EBITDA margins versus 18% peers; CEO Tom Pike's IQVIA playbook implies $47-$72 per share, 60-144% upside at normalized margins.

N4 V3 C3
Starboard Value 2023-09-12

GoDaddy Inc. GDDY

GoDaddy has missed its 2022 Investor Day targets as Tech & Dev expenses ballooned; cutting costs to a 40% growth+profitability exit rate and adding a Starboard director unlocks a ~40% valuation re-rating.

N4 V3 C2
Muddy Waters 2023-08-04

Vivion Investments

Vivion's proposed bond exchange rests on inflated UK hotel valuations — illustrated by Crowne Plaza Heathrow, marked at EUR94.6m versus CBRE's EUR72.9m — serving insiders, not bondholders.

N4 V2 C3
Starboard Value 2023-07-06

Algonquin Power & Utilities Corp. AQN

Starboard, now AQN's largest holder at 7.5%, says selling the unregulated renewables fixes leverage and the payout ratio, leaving a greener regulated utility worth a peer-premium re-rating.

N4 V1 C1
Kerrisdale Capital 2023-06-15

Carvana Co. CVNA

Carvana is a poorly-run subprime used-car retailer buried under $6.5bn of debt; the recent 165% rally is a loan-sale mirage and the equity is worth zero.

N4 V3 C3
Land & Buildings 2023-06-01

Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. ARE

Alexandria's life-science office portfolio is being hit by the same WFH hurricane as traditional offices, and shares face 30-40% downside if re-rated to coastal office REIT peers.

N3 V4 C4
Elliott Management 2023-05-11

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company GT

Retail stores alone could be worth nearly Goodyear's entire market capitalization

N5 V4 C4
Greenlight Capital 2023-05-09

Vitesco Technologies VTSC

Vitesco trades at €2.6B EV — less than its ICE business alone is worth (€2.9-4.3B at peer multiples); buy the stock and get the high-growth EV-powertrain unit for free.

N5 V3 C2
Starboard Value 2023-05-05

LivePerson, Inc. LPSN

LivePerson's Founder-CEO LoCascio has destroyed value and ignored governance; Starboard is launching a 2023 proxy fight to force a CEO change or sale of the company.

N4 V2 C2
Bluebell Capital 2023-04-12

Glencore Plc GLEN

Glencore's unsolicited Teck bid is structurally flawed; Glencore should first demerge thermal coal, Oil Marketing and Viterra, then merge with Teck to unlock a world-class transition-metals leader.

N4 V1 C1
Engine Capital 2023-03-22

Parkland Corporation PKI

Parkland's conglomerate mix of retail, refinery and distribution trades at a 3-turn discount to Couche-Tard; spin the non-core assets and refresh the stale board to unlock ~$45/share, roughly 55% upside.

N4 V2 C1
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
TCI Fund 2023-02-20

Airbus SE AIR

TCI urges Airbus to abandon the 29.9% Evidian stake — a value-destructive, politically-motivated bailout of Atos that distracts management from fixing aircraft delivery shortfalls.

N4 V2 C1
Pershing Square 2023-02-09

Pershing Square Holdings (fund-level annual update) PSH

PSH outperformed S&P 500 by 930bps in 2022 thanks to interest-rate hedge

N2 V3 C2
Ancora 2023-02-08

Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers RBA

Back the amended RBA-IAA merger: $350-900M of synergies, a Starboard/Ancora-refreshed board, and Luxor's anti-deal case is flawed — RBA should re-rate from $62 to ~$130.

N4 V3 C3
Trian Partners 2023-01-12

The Walt Disney Company DIS

Disney's world-class IP is being squandered by a board that overpaid $52bn for Fox, bungled CEO succession, and is bleeding streaming losses — add Nelson Peltz to restore discipline.

N4 V3 C3
Trian Partners 2023-01-11

The Walt Disney Company DIS

Disney is in a self-inflicted crisis of governance, strategy and capital allocation; electing Nelson Peltz to the board will restore discipline, profitability and the dividend by FY 2025.

N4 V2 C2
Oasis Management 2022-12-21

Digital Garage, Inc. 4819 JT

Digital Garage's fintech payments arm is starved by a distracted conglomerate; spinning off FinTech and dumping the Kakaku.com stake unlocks ~100% upside amid Japan's cashless boom.

N3 V2 C1
Oasis Management 2022-12-21

Digital Garage Inc. 4819 JT

Digital Garage is missing Japan's cashless-payments wave; spinning off DG Financial Technology, divesting Kakaku, and refocusing management would nearly double the stock and lift profit before tax from JPY4.5bn to JPY11.4bn.

N4 V2 C1
Muddy Waters 2022-12-14

Vivion Investments S.à.r.l.

Vivion's €1.44bn bond issuer is a multi-billion euro shell game — fabricated shareholder loans, inflated occupancy and fair value gains, and related-party rents enriching controlling shareholder Amir Dayan.

N4 V2 C2
Land & Buildings 2022-12-01

Six Flags Entertainment Corp. SIX

Six Flags' owned real estate is worth more than its entire equity value; spinning it to a REIT buyer like VICI plus fixing the botched 2022 repositioning can double the stock.

N4 V4 C4
Muddy Waters 2022-11-16

DLocal Ltd. DLO

Muddy Waters is short DLO: contradictory TPV disclosures, implausibly high FX-driven take rates, governance failures and ~$1bn of insider selling point to likely fraud at the Uruguay-based payments processor.

N4 V2 C2
TCI Fund 2022-11-15

Alphabet GOOGL

Alphabet's cost base is bloated — headcount up 20% CAGR since 2017, pay 67% above Microsoft, Other Bets bleeding $20bn; cut costs, target a 40% Google Services margin, and buy back stock aggressively.

N4 V3 C2
Palliser Capital 2022-10-27

Capricorn Energy CNE

NewMed's all-share bid for Capricorn hands shareholders a 42% discount and a self-serving board deal; a cash-return plus Egypt-focused optimisation path unlocks 400p/share instead.

N5 V4 C4
Starboard Value 2022-10-19

Multiple (Wix, Salesforce, Splunk, Vertiv) WIX / CRM / SPLK / VRT

Four high-quality TMT names (Wix, Salesforce, Splunk, Vertiv) trade at multi-year-low valuations; closing the margin gap to peers as the market shifts from growth to profitability unlocks substantial FCF/share upside.

N4 V3 C3
Muddy Waters 2022-07-28

Sunrun Inc. RUN

Sunrun's equity story rests on three shaky pillars — inflated subscriber values, abusive IRS tax-basis gaming, and fragile ABS — that together imply an 85% haircut to Net Earning Assets.

N4 V2 C2
Sachem Head 2022-04-26

US Foods Holding Corp. USFD

Sachem Head owns 8.7% of US Foods and is running a proxy fight to install five directors who can close the Sysco margin gap and deliver ~100% upside.

N4 V3 C3
Engine Capital 2022-03-22

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt HMHC

Veritas's $21/share buyout of Houghton Mifflin steals the company for 7.6x 2024 UFCF; reject it and execute a standalone Dutch tender recap to reach ~$42 by 2024.

N4 V3 C3
Engine Capital 2022-03-22

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt HMHC

Veritas' $21 tender for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt steals value at 7.6x UFCF; a self-funded Dutch tender and standalone plan could deliver roughly $42 per share by 2024.

N3 V1 C1
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 2022-03-03

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Huntsman underperformed the S&P 500 by 337% from IPO to Starboard's involvement

N5 V4 C4
Starboard Value 2022-03-02

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Huntsman has broken every major Investor Day commitment since 2014 — fooled shareholders three times

N5 V4 C4
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
Pershing Square 2022-02-11

Pershing Square Holdings (fund-level annual update; covers portfolio including Lowe's, Universal Music Group, Hilton, Chipotle, Restaurant Brands, Howard Hughes, Domino's, Netflix, PSTH) PSH

PSH delivered 26.9% NAV return in 2021 and 50.1% 3-yr CAGR, outperforming activist and equity hedge indices

N2 V3 C2
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 2022-02-10

Huntsman Corporation HUN

Huntsman has underperformed proxy peers by 575% since its IPO

N4 V3 C3
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
Kerrisdale Capital 2021-12-01

Astra Space, Inc. ASTR

Astra is a SPAC-bubble rocket company with no revenue, an undersized non-reusable vehicle, and fantastical 300-launch-a-year forecasts; shares should tumble back to the ground.

N4 V3 C3
Land & Buildings 2021-11-01

REIT sector (thematic)

REITs hedge inflation, but only short-lease high-margin sectors — residential, self-storage, warehouses — work; office and net lease are bond-like losers in a 6%+ CPI world.

N3 V3 C3
Land & Buildings 2021-09-01

N/A (asset-class advocacy)

Publicly traded REITs have outperformed private real estate by 165–590bps annually for 20 years, offer better liquidity, cheaper valuations vs. bonds, and superior inflation-era returns.

N2 V3 C3