Callouts & quotes from 1,434+ activist slides

"When we adjust Samsara's COGS to assume a three-year amortization period for device costs, we find that gross margins have been overstated by well over 600bps the past two fiscal years."

"Of the 27 new product introductions, 12 direct consumers to purchase the product on Amazon through Monster’s website which we believe is a lower contribution margin distribution outlet."

"In this illustrative example, Huntsman may be underpricing its product by ~30% given its competitor needs to price at $100 per unit to earn the same minimum required contribution margin"

"Spruce Point has repeatedly warned to be cautious when companies cannot accurately forecast capex, as this often leads to gross margin deterioration (and ultimately EPS disappointment)."

"Based on extensive research and discussions with culinary experts and suppliers, we believe we can accomplish these goals at Olive Garden’s current price points without hurting margins"

"Based on extensive research and discussions with culinary experts and suppliers, we believe we can accomplish these goals at Olive Garden’s current price points without hurting margins"

"When P&G acquired Gillette in 2005, previous leadership believed P&G could achieve a 24% EBIT margin. We still believe P&G can approach that profitability level under strong leadership"

"We therefore divide the estimated Q2 FY25 overstated inventory amount, which is a cumulative number, by ELF's reported gross margin of 71%. This provides the implied overstated revenue"

"Our best estimate, we cannot reconcile $59m and $79m of sales in 2017 and 2018. As a result, we cannot reconcile and estimate operating profit margin inflation of $42 and $52m in 2018."

"TWC's OIBDA margin is projected to improve from 37.6% in 2006 pro forma for the Adelphia/Comcast transactions to 39.2% in 2009 as the Adelphia systems are integrated to TWC standards."

"I think Dlocal has a stronger, sales team, but they, they don't really look into profitability. You're only looking into TPV growth. And, um, and that's why their margins are thinner."

"According to two former executives, DLO's relationship with Google started out operating at a loss, and later was running on wafer thin net margins of just a few basis points at best."

"To make FIGS LTM Gross Margin more comparable with peers, we deduct “Selling Expenses”. By our estimate, FIGS’ LTM Gross Margin is inflated by 2,040 basis points, from 50.7% to 71.0%."

"Spin-offs have historically outperformed the broader market by a large margin as the transaction allows for the individual segments of a parent company to be more efficiently valued."

"At best, this reflects poor governance and controls at Carvana. At worst, the Company is attempting to hide the extent to which its high-margin F&I income is tied to related parties."

"Despite Mr. Simmons’ claims that growth and value creation are just around the corner, margins have not improved and the synergies from the Bayer transaction have yet to be realized."

"If P&G could achieve 3.5% annual COGS productivity over the course of its restructuring program from FY 2011 to 2016, we believe the Company would easily generate 51.5% gross margins"

"We believe measuring integrated margins skews the Company's view of product profitability, and may be masking poorly performing businesses or impeding the Company's pricing strategy."

"All the BPOs servicing Facebook, and I'm not sure but probably at least a dozen, are doing low margins just to have the name, to learn, and leverage that name in their sales efforts."

"CFO: "The Cintas legacy gross margins continue to expand and the G&K gross margins will too as we realize the acquisition synergies." — Cintas CFO Q1 2018 Earnings Call Sept 26, 2017"

"Moving to a distribution model similar to O'Reilly's will allow AAP to significantly increase SSS growth, while leveraging existing boxes & infrastructure to further improve margins"

"In Q2'22 even the CFO said there was no target for margin expansion and yet margins are +880bps since. Management should provide enhanced disclosure to explain how this is possible."

"Intuit has among the lowest CFO margins and highest SBC per employee. Importantly, Intuit has the worst revenue visibility (by far), a reason SaaS companies trade at rich multiples."

"significant profit opportunities can be lost in the false pursuit of reducing input costs — Marginal Thinking: Making Money on a Dairy Farm, WCDS Advances in Dairy Technology (2006)"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Recognizing IFRS reporting conventions can make comparisons difficult depending on the company reporting convention, we believe Heska provided inflated guidance on BiEssiA margins."

"The only public video company we could find that EBITDA margins equal to or greater than 50% is called China MediaExpress Holdings Inc. ("CCME"). However, CCME was a complete fraud"

"We believe there is evidence that Danimer’s EBITDA margin projections are overly optimistic based on the margin profiles of both its self-selected peers and chemical/plastic peers."

"When combined with the negligible net income produced with realistic margin expectations for SMART Brazil (and SGH as a whole), the Company goes cash flow negative as soon as 2Q20."

"FIGS recently made an unusual practice of eliminating its written 2022 Gross margin guidance in its press release, while on the conference call claiming to maintain it in H2 2022."

"To achieve management’s high-end EBITDA margin target on a GPU of $3,000, Carvana would have to maintain SG&A (ex-advertising) less than 1/3 that of CarMax. How plausible is this?"

"Some of the biggest companies in the industry don't offer gross margin guidance, which makes MPWR's ability to offer such precise guidance, that it rarely misses, very remarkable."

"Q2 results illustrate how the underlying business of the legacy MDA is deteriorating fast. YTD underlying organic growth was -12.7%. Management also cut EBITDA margins materially."

"We believe that Amdocs' unusually steady margins are reflective of a management team eager to meet Wall Street expectations, and willing to engineer numbers to do so if necessary."

"An increase in scale and an improvement in revenue mix (lower mix of servicing fees, higher mix of net interest revenue) should have driven margins above the 2006 pro forma levels"

"We view iRhythm as a low-margin supplier of a largely commoditized product, yet the Company is currently trading at an approximate 100% premium to other medical device companies."

"While the CEO talks up defense contracts as “huge”, we remind investors that gov't contracts are often margin constrained and offered through highly competitive tender processes."

"Dollarama's margin profile is grossly out of line with peers, and we find evidence of aggressive accounting and questionable business practices that can partly explain the issue."

"SiTel’s historical operating expenses and margins, as well as other legacy semiconductor businesses, can be used to compute the profitability of DSP’s Digital Telephony business."

"So the characteristic of ADP, in a very interesting way is that we have a margin profile that is actually very similar between our product sets. — Jan Siegmund (February 3, 2016)"

"We reported record revenue for both the quarter and the fiscal year, as well as a gross margin of more than 40% for the quarter and 39% for the year — Jim Thorburn, CFO of Twist."

"holistically, this portfolio provides a platform for balanced growth, margin and return improvement...all of which leads to top-tier total shareholder return — PepsiCo Management"

"How could VetIQ wellness centers, which conduct only smaller-ticket, lower-margin procedures, possibly be so much more profitable than VCA's more comprehensive animal hospitals?"

"Warning: At best, we estimate that Oatly's Gross Margin is on par, to slightly below, its peer plant and dairy specialty foods peers after adjusting for outbound shipping costs."

"Trian believes management can achieve at least 16.0% operating margins by 2018 and ultimately reach 18% operating margins over time...gross margins are a substantial opportunity"

"We believe GCP has opportunities to improve gross margins by improving manufacturing practices, simplifying supply-chain management, and implementing strategic pricing projects."

"The CEO is “confident” that TASK can improve margins to exceed 25% while a former executive interviewed by Spruce Point expressed doubt absent a real significant differentiator."

"Amazon has twice implemented royalty cuts to its merchants to support “increases in manufacturing costs”. Royalty cuts eat into merchants’ margins, which drives dissatisfaction."

"We see it as no coincidence that gross margin, operating margin and net margin all peaked in Q3 2018, the same quarter that Brazil peaked as a percentage of SGH’s total revenue."

""[We're] having less volatility than refining peers when refining margins flex to the downside, so we get the best of both worlds." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, March 6, 2025"

""[We're] having less volatility than refining peers when refining margins flex to the downside, so we get the best of both worlds." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, March 6, 2025"

"We believe GoDaddy has a significant opportunity to improve margins and drive shareholder value through a disciplined approach to operational efficiency and capital allocation."

"On April 1, 2024, Autodesk announced the Audit Committee of the Board was conducting an investigation into the Company’s free cash flow and non-GAAP operating margin practices."

"Less than two months before the scil transaction was announced, Heska told investors that it was targeting 2022 gross margins of 49.5%. The current plan is 42% at the midpoint."

"Despite operating as nearly a pure play passive platform, State Street’s Investment Management margins meaningfully lag the peer average of ~ 45% and BlackRock’s margin of 39%"

"Based on the current cost structure for the Display business, even assuming 100% incremental margins, AOL's Display business would have to grow by over 95% just to break even."

"Under 3G management, Heinz expanded global gross margins by ~600 bps and Europe gross margins by ~1,100 bps in just two years without a material additional capital investment"