Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Because savers perceive interest income as more recurring than volatile stock market gains, and because interest income is spread more broadly than equity gains, it’s fair to assume that a much greater proportion of interest income would be spent."

"Given that Juniper failed to meet its prior cost reduction target by a wide margin, a significant amount of detail and conviction from management will be necessary to ensure that investors and Street analysts understand that this time is different"

"There are doctors in the landscape with a lot of influence who are completely corrupt who are on board with Saluda. And they will corrupt people with Saluda. They own stock and options in Saluda and have consulting contracts. Saluda is everywhere."

"Saluda’s approach – personalize stimulation not only by patient but second by second – is the polar opposite of and a frontal challenge to Nevro’s entire reason for existence: a gimmicky one-size fits all approach based on a fixed 10kHz frequency."

"In addition to competitive pressure from scaling private PE platforms, an industry expert we spoke with noted that one of the biggest risks he sees for companies like Limbach is large OEM companies expanding their service and solutions businesses."

"After examining a number of records manually and matching them up with the User Numbers identified for teachers and tutors, we found that the user type field tells us teachers are identified as “Type=1, tutors as “Type=2” and students as “Type=0.”"

"When the center delayed payment, the executive alleged that members of TransMedics management team – COO Tamer Khayal and OCS liver head Magdy Attia – attempted to pressure them for payment by holding a heart hostage from an ICU transplant patient"

"Just six months later, after PPG completed the split-off of its commodity business, PPG "RemainCo" re-rated to an 18x NTM P/E multiple, representing a ~40% multiple expansion (the blended multiple of the two businesses rose to 17x, a 33% increase)"

"Norfolk Southern cannot initiate a proper PSR implementation and related strategy without (i.) installing operationally proficient leadership, (ii.) abandoning its “resilience” model and (iii.) committing to an infrastructure and network overhaul."

"As unfathomable as this is, Bennett's employment was terminated "without cause" (a "for cause" termination would have reduced the payment), a shocking decision considering he led the company through both a bankruptcy and the Bonanza Creek debacle."

"Wing Lung Bank (“WLB”) represents an example of a Hong Kong bank which was formerly family-owned, the performance of which has substantially improved after being acquired at the end of 2008 by a larger financial group, namely China Merchants Bank."

"Das hochrangige Management hat Insiderinformationen und Einfluss auf die Nachrichten. Wenn ein Mitbegründer und Vorstandsmitglied aktiv gegen das Aufwärtspotenzial des von ihm geführten Unternehmens wettet, erfordert dies eine behördliche Prüfung."

"Also in the middle of all of that, they started launching the lending team. So doing some micro transaction lending, micro being on the order of hundreds of dollars, and that was actually launching pretty good. — Tegus Former Engineer, Oct 2, 2024"

"On March 1, 2011, the Company acquired 100% of the outstanding shares of a company that owned 627 towers in Brazil for $553.2 million, of which $419.2 million was paid using cash on hand in March 2011. — AMT Q1 2011 10-Q, filed May 3, 2011, p. 18."

"“The claim is simply false” — Burford Capital. “As it transpired, a litigation matter other than the Salix matter resolved first, and resulted in an entitlement for Burford. That is the figure shown in Burford’s 2013 reporting.” — Burford Capital."

"“Quantum Computing Creeps Closer to Reality.” — 1994 article in Scientific American. “Practical Quantum Computers Creep Closer to Reality” — 2011 article in IEEE Spectrum. “The Era of Quantum Computing Is Here.” — 2018 article in industry journal."

"“knife fights in phone booths... you’re not really taking share any longer; you’re just trading share amongst those three primary players.” — A former Pure employee. “Toyota, Honda, and Nissan... they’re really close.” — An enterprise IT reseller."

"We made some modest adjustments to our EBITDA margin outlook at the midyear point raising Imagery a bit higher and putting Space Systems segment a bit lower due to continue Geo concept market weakness and program performance. — CEO Howard L. Lance"

"“We recently began production at our facility in Ogden, Utah, and we expect to begin production at a new facility in Singapore in the first half of 2021 and at a facility in Maanshan, China in the second half of 2021.” — Oatly China Per Prospectus"

"“Essentially it’s the same”; “very, very similar to the technology Twist is using as their starting point…” — Executive recently at a key Twist competitor, as well at Gen9, another competitor; currently employed at another synthetic biology player"

""I think you're a smart guy. You figure it out. I just really don't want to go on that topic, because even within Twist, [redacted] was not allowed to talk about it to other employees." — Ex-Twist employee involved with Twist's activities in China"

""The Hong Kong dollar peg has been working well since its adoption in 1983. It's the foundation for the stability of the currency and financial system in Hong Kong so we have no intention to make any change" — Norman Chan, HKMA Chief – August 2011"

"In Oceania, which includes Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Guam, net sales increased 7.5% in dollars and 4.8% in local currencies due to timing of sales into bottlers. — Q4 2021 Conference Call"

"Over time, this [Oklo's size and technology] should allow us to reduce cost and asset construction time through purchasing economies of scale, as well as efficiencies that should come from deploying essentially the same asset over time. — Oklo CFO"

"Dentsu Inc., Japan (hereinafter referred to as “Party A”), and Hua Kuang Advertising Company., Ltd, Hong Kong, China (hereinafter referred to as “Party B”) established a joint venture, “&c. Digital (Beijing) Advertising Co., Ltd”, on May 22, 2008."

"opined that the more focused approaches pursued by these competitors may be more likely to produce successful drugs than PeptiDream’s large library approach. — Conversation with peptide chemistry leader at a large pharmaceutical company, July 2018"

"Coke Zero Delivers Explosive Growth — Source: http://www.cokesolutions.com/OurProducts/Pages/Site%20Pages/DetailedPage.aspx?ArticleURL=/OurProducts/Pages/Articles/Product%20News/CokeZeroDeliversExplosiveGrowth.aspx&smallImage=yes&L2=Product%20News"

"Free cash flow conversions, 125% in 2015, average for the last five years, 119%; so just stellar result. We did dip our toe in the water in 2015 on AR factoring, so that isn't 125%. If we take that out, we're still at 119%. — CFO Q4'2015 Conf Call"

"We sincerely thank Martin for his many contributions and dedication to METTLER TOLEDO. We regret that he has to retire due to his new commitments and wish him well as he takes on this time-intensive role. — Robert F. Spoerry, Chairman of the Board"

"「KLAのキセノン光源はちゃんと機能します。ウシオの錫光源は失敗。ASMLは違います。彼らは錫を使いますが、赤外線レーザーで発火させます。さすがのASML。KLAの技術については、公表されています。超低温のキセノンガスと赤外線レーザーを使います。ウシオはASMLと同じように、溶けた錫を使いますが、赤外線レーザーでなくて、放電用の電極を使います。それはひどい仕組みです。ふたつの『プロペラー』を使うことによって、すべてがめちゃくちゃになります」 — KLAで極端紫外線マスク検査を担当した元幹部"

"「KLAのキセノン光源はちゃんと機能します。ウシオの錫光源は失敗。ASMLは違います。彼らは錫を使いますが、赤外線レーザーで発火させます。さすがのASML。KLAの技術については、公表されています。超低温のキセノンガスと赤外線レーザーを使います。ウシオはASMLと同じように、溶けた錫を使いますが、赤外線レーザーでなくて、放電用の電極を使います。それはひどい仕組みです。ふたつの『プロペラー』を使うことによって、すべてがめちゃくちゃになります」 — KLAで極端紫外線マスク検査を担当した元幹部"

"Preceding studies have shown that unbilled receivables may lead either to earnings management or accounting fraud and issued warnings for stakeholders to carefully observe unbilled receivables. — Academy of Accounting and Financial Studies Journal"

"‘current evidence does not support IVF as a first-line therapy for unexplained infertility’; usually ‘the best initial therapy is a course (typically 3 or 4 cycles) of ovarian stimulation [...] and intrauterine insemination (OS-IUI)’ — ASRM, 2020a"

"I used to be a 100% Nevro believer in the beginning. They can say or claim whatever they want but it's not true in clinical practice. It’s absolutely not true that it can handle back and leg pain. Nevro is a one trick pony. — High volume implanter"

""The problem is CLEAR does this often, and they do it with a lot of their employees, is they put other people after they've done a stint of service in one particular role, they moved them to a different part of the organization." — Former Employee"

"Basically, on the crush margin, so if you really talk about crush margin, I would really expect it to be a little bit of flat or let's say a little bit on the lower side. The reason is there is overcapacity of the crushing. — Former Bunge Director"

"I was wondering if anyone has had any issues with you battery causing you pain and looking like this? This one on the right has been replaced and relocated 3 times ,the one on the left no problems at all.that boil like thing has popped up as well."

"“You’re welcome. And the metric that the study was powered to prove was time to optimal therapy. We do not know what the other endpoints will end up being, but we do know that they’re not powered to statistically show a difference.” — Larry Mehren"

"Genius has secured partnerships with a large number of sports leagues in 2020, including 20 new partnerships since the beginning of October. Our conversions with experts reveal these partners are unlikely to pay meaningful cash revenue to Genius."

"Starboard believes Mr. Cwynar’s experience as the former chief executive officer of a semiconductor product and licensing company, as well as his technology and engineering background, will enable him to provide invaluable oversight to the Board."

"Red Flag: Beware of insider selling when the company is buying. The last period of MPWR's share repurchases were in 2012-2015. This is the same period Chang's ownership effectively went to zero. CEO Hsing made his largest stock sale ever in 2015."

"We are surprised that the sell side seems to think that gross margin in the product segment could expand through the coming years despite the strong relative growth of sales of distributed product vs. manufactured product, as cited by management."

"As a result of its efforts, BEF Foods is nearly 90% vertically integrated and recent restructuring initiatives have contributed to an increase in operating income for this segment from $16.0 million in Fiscal 2009 to $30.8 million in Fiscal 2013."

"Plante & Moran’s Forensic and Valuation Services (FVS) team members possess accounting, auditing, economic, financial, investigative, and litigation experience to help uncover fraud and accurately measure and quantify the amount of economic loss."

"Target’s board decided not to transfer credit risk in a credit card transaction, despite Pershing Square’s repeated requests. In 2008, Target’s credit card operating profits fell 65% predominantly due to increased credit risk and bad debt expense"

"We see ~45-60% near-term downside in DXCM as the U.S. T1 market is increasingly exhausted, as Dexcom fails to participate in the growth of the U.S. T2 CGM market, and as the release of the Libre 2 brings downward pricing pressure on the industry."

"McDonald's allows the use of gestation crates up until a sow is confirmed to be pregnant, which can take up to six weeks of its pregnancy and is a complete shift from its stated commitment in 2012, which had a goal of eliminating gestation crates"

"On May 16, 2022 CEO Stetson filed a Form 4 notifying investors that he sold 65,000 shares on March 9, 2022 at $120.79. This disclosure is more than two months after the sale! Something is still irreconcilable with CEO Stetson’s ownership filings."

"Warning: Recall from our interview of a former Oatly employee with knowledge of its finance and accounting, issues were raised about problems with inventory accounting and recent changes in policy made, though not disclosed in the IPO prospectus."

"The Company has a number of loan arrangements with fellow Group entities. In error, cashflow transactions associated with these loan arrangements were presented within "Cash generated from operating activities" within the Statement of Cash Flows."

"If one simply adds back to COGS the direct manufacturing costs we believe it is misclassifying via a Worldcom-esque accounting scheme, its gross margin is negative – consistent with color from ex-employees, competitors, and manufacturing experts."

"In the 55 years since Aerojet acquired the land, civilization has encroached such that it is now in a very desirable location, adjacent to a main highway, adjacent to public transportation, and close to schools and retail and commercial districts"

"We estimate that within the five year period ending June 2022, in addition to the continuation of the current 50% dividend payout ratio, the Value Unlock Plan could result in: a total of c.US$33bn being returned to shareholders via share buybacks"

"Our criticism of FND's deficient disclosures extend to its Board relationships and related party dealings. For example, despite Peter Starrett serving on both the Boards of Floor & Decor and Boot Barn, FND fails to disclose that it sells to BOOT."

"Stop lowering the bar with targets such as negative free cash flow and a return on invested capital well below the Company’s estimated cost of capital – unconscionable targets that the Compensation Committee has approved the last two fiscal years"

"Based on our significant number of live stream related interviews, we believe that the Street's base case is materially overstating Live Video and Mobile Marketing revenues while understating costs of revenues associated with Live Video services."

"With customers ranging from public schools to municipalities to small businesses, FleetCor is selling a carbon neutral program when in reality they are pocketing nearly all the money at a level that will most certainly bring criminal indictments."

"MSCI either made misleading or erroneous claims about its ESG business by originally stating that its origins were from 1972 and later revising the statement to 1988. MSCI also no longer claims that ESG is "Better investments for a better world"."

"In 2014, there was no disclosure about significant asset disposal gains in Other Operating Income, leading us to believe that substantially all of the gains were excluded from Other Operating Income, and therefore are included in Casino's EBITDA."

"Despite over three years of effort and billions spent on acquisitions, the management team that was hired to turn around the Core Business has failed to produce acceptable results, in turn, causing massive declines in profitability and cash flow."