Callouts & quotes from 1,434+ activist slides

"Axon's core Taser product is at best not growing, while margins have been slowly contracting. Meanwhile, its faster growing Software and Sensor segment is experiencing slower growth, along with margin contraction."

""Filed false and misleading financial statements." "Artificially inflated its revenue and gross margin recognition by fraudulently recognizing revenue on barter transactions..." — The North Face (SEC Filing Quote)"

"A strong fourth quarter capped another great year for Broadridge, with record closed sales, 16% recurring revenue growth, continued margin expansion, and 14% Adjusted EPS growth. — CEO Gokey, Q4 2022 Press Release"

"It is incredibly perplexing that even after isolating the largest variable cost on the PnL (purchased transportation), Forward Air would effectively achieve a ~9% incremental margin on what is mostly fixed costs."

"Revenues are basically flat over the last 4 quarters – a striking fact for a “growth” stock; losses have doubled and are accelerating; gross and operating margins have tanked, falling sequentially in each period."

"As important though, do the remaining six brands ALL fit Hasebe's 2021 criteria of JPY5bn revenue, 15% operating margin and growth? If not, would it not be better to pool resources into Biore and Jergens instead?"

"Note that the trained and certified dealer network slowed in Q1 2022 to 4%. One of our concerns is that Generac does not break-out clean energy revenues or margins in SEC filings as a separate reporting segment."

"It appears incredibly suspicious that, after CFO Rao claimed new products don't generate higher ASPs or margin, MPWR would then report record price increases in 2017/18. Prices fell on average 5% from 2013-2016."

"After appropriately valuing its high quality franchise and real estate cash flows, even “unfixed” Wendy’s is worth $35 today. If the Company improves its company-operated store margins, the business is worth $42"

"Can you imagine this happening at any reputable company? Andy Moore is still the CEO of B. Riley Securities, and this begs the question – how many more undisclosed margin loans do RILY’s executives have at risk?"

"In total, our detailed presentation outlines how we believe Office Depot, as a stand-alone company, can improve its current operating margins from 0.9% to 7.3%, representing an improvement of over $650 million."

"Even before the recession, Target’s retail margins have been deteriorating while Wal-Mart’s margins have remained higher and constant, despite Wal-Mart selling a greater mix of food and other lower margin goods"

"Even before the recession, Target’s retail margins have been deteriorating while Wal-Mart’s margins have remained higher and constant, despite Wal-Mart selling a greater mix of food and other lower margin goods"

"We believe that ANTA posts industry-leading operating margins not because it's so well operated; but, rather because ANTA uses numerous secretly controlled Tier 1 distributors to fraudulently boost its margins."

"Lasertec is an extreme, textbook accounting fraud that checks off every box: claiming to have the highest margins in the industry; but alarmingly little cash flow and the lowest cash conversion among its peers."

"Since the most recent acquisition of Fleet closed in 2017 PBH’s share price has underperformed. We believe PBH will continue to underperform as headwinds result in negative organic growth and declining margins."

"Spruce Point finds that companies claiming superior margins that poorly plan and execute against capex projections have underlying problems or poor visibility, which ultimately lead to earnings disappointment."

"From local filings, we see that its EBITDA margin has fallen sharply over the past three years from 7.8% to 3.9% (Adj EBITDA from 8.2% to 6.0%), while operating cash flow amounted to just A$3 million in 2022."

"Subsequent to the move, Dalian’s OP margin declined from 15.4% in FY 2009 to 10.6% in FY 2010, indicating that the Automotive portion of Dalian was much higher margin than the Small Precision Motors portion."

"We believe PGNY needs the clinics more than they need PGNY and that short, 1-year clinic contracts only increase clinic network negotiating leverage, which we believe may pressure PGNY margins going forward."

"New long-term incentive plan rewards measurable results: organic sales growth, gross margins, and credible ROIC targets while retaining certain sustainabililty elements, but focused on verifiable benchmarks."

"GFL restated its Adjusted EBITDA a second time in Q2 2020 to make the USA Waste segment's margins look much better by +2.1% (210bps). The boost came from allocating more costs to the “Corporate” or account."

"What Spruce Point finds amazing is that Saputo has been able to improve margins after the 2018 step down, without sacrificing any labor or rationalizing excess capacity (which it has now ceased disclosing)."

"Monster recently started referencing "production inefficiencies" as impacting gross margins. Could the inefficiencies be so bad that Monster has to ship products over 5,000 miles from Ireland to California?"

"As a standalone entity, SSgA could be better positioned to close the margin gap versus peers, receive a multiple re-rating over time, and may have significant strategic value to other industry participants."

"~400 bps of improvement in MDLZ margins, bringing them in-line with diversified food peers (but well below snacks peers), would yield ~$1.4bn in incremental EBITDA (potentially worth ~$16bn to shareholders)"

"As you'll be aware, 2025 Brent strip is at around $75 per barrel, and other commodities and prices, including refining margins, are under pressure. Were these prices to play out, the rule of thumb impact in"

"Since the beginning of 2013, HTA's same property revenues have grown on average by 1.9% y/y while same property expenses have decreased on average by 1.1% y/y, yet there is no commensurate margin expansion"

"Paychex is an ADP competitor that has reached its mature growth phase; yet, ADP trails Paychex significantly across all metrics: revenue productivity, gross margin, and operational profit margin (ex-float)"

"While management says "holistically, this portfolio provides a platform for balanced growth, margin and return improvement...all of which leads to top-tier total shareholder return," it simply is not true."

"MTD does not disclose sales by industry end market, instead broadly reporting sales in three product categories (lab, industrial, and retail) without providing details of margins in these three categories."

"If ADP earned Paychex’s ~41% SMB margin(1) on its ~$2bn SMB business, it would imply ~$820mm of operating profit. SMB-only profits would therefore account for ~50%+ of total Employer Services total profit"

"If GoDaddy executes against a long-term strategy focused on margin expansion, we believe the Company can generate a growth + profitability rate in-line with the broader set of scaled technology companies."

"The market has historically valued software companies with a material hardware business at lower multiples because their revenue ramp is overstated and their gross margin profile is structurally inferior."

"If GoDaddy executes against a long-term strategy focused on margin expansion, we believe the Company can generate a growth + profitability rate in-line with the broader set of scaled technology companies."

"By adjusting CLEAR's gross margins for labor and transaction fees, we see that its gross margin is 2,430 basis points lower than the promoted margin and 800 basis points lower than the peer group average."

"At a minimum, industry leading FMCG companies should achieve normalized gross margins of over 45%. Currently, we estimate Consumer Products Gross Margins remain below pre-Covid levels and far below peers."

"If GoDaddy executes against a long-term strategy focused on margin expansion, we believe the Company can generate a growth + profitability rate in-line with the broader set of scaled technology companies."

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012-to-2019-time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 Investor Relations, March 14, 2024"

"Our capacity to improve our margin profile provides us with the confidence to achieve the strategic planned target to increase adjusted EBITDA margin annually by 30 to 50 basis points. — CFO Michaud Q3'23"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012-to-2019-time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 Investor Relations, March 14, 2024"

"Based on our research we believe there is an opportunity for Tessera to deliver double-digit revenue growth, achieve best-in-class EBITDA margins of 60-70%, and create significant value for shareholders."

"Compared to the investor day guidance from less than 2 years ago, investors are now expecting UNP to grow volumes at only one-third of guided levels and grow revenue at half of guided incremental margins"

"Though analysts project declining sales growth, they foresee margin expansion at the same time. This pair of estimates makes little sense to us and should make investors skeptical of consensus estimates."

"Our review of peer company gross margin expansion during their approximate growth from $200 to $400 million of revenue showed that none achieved such expansion, and the median was a gain of just 85 bps."

"As we pointed out on a previous slide, it appears that FND's customer mix has shift away from homeowners, which has important implications for the growth of high margin installation materials and tools."

"Axon would now like investors to believe that it is at the precipice of leveraging their video and emerging AI capabilities alongside a subscription model to drive both revenue and margin for investors."

"The higher gross profit margin was due to (i) efficient utilization of our plants and equipment fleet and (ii) completion of new backlog with more favorable margins. — Construction Partners, Inc. (2024)"

"Dollarama consistently produces operating margins materially higher than industry peers, and higher than historical industry norms. This gap has only grown more substantial through the last five years."

"In our Mid and High cases, we believe EBIT margins could be ~8.3% to 9.3%. In our Low case, if same-store sales remain flat, we believe Lowe’s can maintain current EBIT margins through cost reductions"

"We see 75-90% downside to PETQ on lower-than-expected services growth and margin contraction in the products business, as well as on multiple contraction as the market’s understanding of PETQ evolves."

"We believe it will be challenging for PowerSchool to expand in these markets in a meaningful way without diluting margins because of the structural differences in education funding in foreign markets."

"We are concerned that Hill-Rom may similarly demonstrate margin contraction and slowed FCF growth in coming quarters as management is forced to make up for seemingly-delayed spending on capex and R&D."

"Our due diligence suggests that the underlying gross margins of P&G’s categories could be as high as 54%. This analysis takes into account P&G’s scale as well the premium pricing of its leading brands"

"Tessera has repeatedly licensed outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies (OSATs) instead of higher value OEM and manufacturer licensees despite OSATs having far lower revenue and margins."

"We would understand if margins declined due to investments in growth, but organic growth is worse than when Solventum was inside of 3M, and the Company has not created an expectation for improvement."

"The Company has never given investors a clear picture as to what are the direct and indirect manufacturing costs related to this business, so that investors can understand trends in its gross margin."

"Kornit's valuation is rich for a commodity-type digital printing company, and analysts are overly optimistic that it can sustain 20%+ revenue growth while expanding EBITDA margins from 7.6% to 17.8%."

"the peak plasma levels of Pitolisant after 6 consecutive daily doses will be 2.3x higher than they were on Day 1 but the Day 1 plasma concentrations were used to estimate the safety margins for QTcF."

"At last year's analyst day, management guided to $3.40 of EPS in 2015, driven by a 4% average growth rate in same-store sales, a 10% EBIT margin, and an $18bn share repurchase program (2011 to 2015)"