Callouts & quotes from 1,316+ activist slides

"It is unclear why Treasury did not allow the preferred stock to pay 12% PIK dividends when the GSEs were unable to pay cash dividends"

"The cash outflow is classified as an investment and doesn't to draw too much attention to itself as it leaves the earnings untouched."

"Both companies appear to have tried to scale their trading businesses too far and too fast, which resulted in substantial cash burns."

"We believe that the repurchase is a good use of cash and will assist in reducing the current discount between its share price and NAV"

"We view Amcor's Adjusted Free Cash Flow as highly aggressive. Notably, they add back proceeds from asset sales to report "Net Capex"."

"It is unclear why Treasury did not allow the preferred stock to pay 12% PIK dividends when the GSEs were unable to pay cash dividends"

"This financial presdigitation appears to have allowed management to increase its cash incentive compensation by 469% on lower goals!!"

"We believe that the repurchase is a good use of cash and will assist in reducing the current discount between its share price and NAV"

"However, by adjusting results for the cash costs of capitalized development expenses, PowerSchool's margin improvement is just 1.6%."

"Xylem presented a highly adjusted free cash flow presentation which even included perplexing cash inflows related to software capex."

"Xylem presented a highly adjusted free cash flow presentation which even included perplexing cash inflows related to software capex."

"Free cash flow conversion. This is my favorite slide. 124% for Church & Dwight; peer average is 91%. A lot of companies target 100%."

"meaning the long-term recurring cash benefit of $5bn in PCF contracts is less than 1% of Lumen's current annual EBITDA or $0.42/shr."

"Having incinerated ~$360MM of cash since 2012, the debt requires new debt or equity to be repaid - in our opinion, a textbook Ponzi."

"We are in directional agreement with Marcato on opportunities for financial engineering given the durable cash flow of the business."

"Enfusion's cash balance is declining and it recently issued equity and expanded its credit facility from $5 million to $100 million."

"Alphabet should follow Apple's capital allocation strategy and become "cash neutral" over time through increased share repurchases."

"The real estate JVs will start with best-in-class properties and have sufficient cash to fund growth and diversification over time."

"Outsourcing these capital requirements to TIP REIT would increase Target Corp’s cash flows and decrease its need for growth capital"

"Therefore our per share valuation is currently $5.28, but is subject to change should we believe that the cash number is incorrect."

"In an LBO, we care more about Levered Free Cash Flow because the cash flow after interest expense is what we can use to repay debt."

"This large discrepancy in advances from advertising customers represents RMB 1.61 billion (~$230 million) of missing cash payments."

"Burford just does not make money on a cash basis, no matter which adjusted metrics management tries to conjure up in a given year."

"A worst-case potential scenario is that Perion’s cash flow is not what it appears and that the cash is needed to cover its tracks."

"Limbach removed the "Non-cash" descriptor for the first time in Q1'25 from the stock-based compensation adjustment to Adj. EBITDA."

"While listing many marque leagues, we have found evidence to have us believe these partners do not pay any cash revenue to Genius"

"XPO uses aggressive financial presentation methods to bolster its cash flow and leverage by including proceeds from assets sales."

"Re-listed Samsung Opco would commit to pay a special cash dividend of KRW30tn to Samsung Opco shareholders at an appropriate time"

"Because there is a non-cash investing disclosure, there should be a non-cash investment amount of at least $1.9 million reported."

"HASI, in our view, improperly applies widely-used HLBV accounting method to misleadingly inflate income and operating cash flow."

"Les Mas du Figuier had a payable to Vitek of €10.1 million. CPI PG paid off the receivable, handing Vitek over €10 million cash."

"We find that recent changes in balance sheet debt are deviating materially from changes in debt through the cash flow statement."

"Incorporating the benefit of NOLs, a discounted cash flow analysis indicates an enterprise value range of $17.1 - $21.6 billion."

"Spruce Point believes that Remitly's cash (and valuation) is likely to be overstated because it includes cash held for clients."

"We believe that the onshore cash is far less than what NQ claims, and that it uses a portion of the excess to commit its fraud."

"Spruce Point observes that REZI's leverage has materially increased while cash flow available for debt reduction has decreased."

"We find it noteworthy that the company borrows relatively small amounts at times when it should be supposedly swimming in cash."

"increase cash to be returned to shareholders relative to the existing 2023-2030 plan by a cumulative ~$ 16 bn (~$ 2.0 bn p.a.)"

"If Valeant has additional debt capacity (up to 4x) after acquisitions, cash is used to buy back stock at 18x trailing earnings"

"We will explore how Kornit focuses investors on its 20%+ revenue growth, but has historically struggled to generate cash flow."

"Our sum-of-the-parts and free cash flow estimated valuation analyses suggest 40%-80% potential downside risk in Intuit shares."

"We believe this transaction was a sham intended to burn off fake revenues and siphon off cash from IQ’s recent Nasdaq listing."

"Although AOL's core Access and Search businesses generate significant and valuable cash flow, these businesses are in decline."

"EH has only collected cash for 20% of its reported revenues since its IPO, or a grand total of RMB25.2 million ($3.6 million)."

"Valuing Kratos at a discount to peers on EBITDA, free cash flow, and book value we estimate 40%-70% downside ($3.15-$6.30/sh)"

"For all of the reasons stated above, we do not believe that RMI is the cash equivalent that management presents to investors."

"We believe Amcor’s Statement of Cash Flow does not comply with FASB guidelines as it does not show restricted cash movements."

"Dillard's is currently trading at ~12% free cash flow yield and has been using all of its free cash flow to repurchase shares"

"The investment was funded with cash on hand for approximately €100 million (approximately $110 million). — Xylem Q1 2023 10-Q"

"Carvana is currently burning hundreds of millions in cash and hugely dependent on third-party funding to finance its growth."

"Spruce Point cannot find any other public company that has ever disclosed a non-cash cloud computing intangible transaction."

"Capital leases have the main effect of inflating EBITDA and Free Cash Flow, two key measures investors use to value Dropbox."

"Spruce Point observes that Saputo has implemented a few financial strategies which we believe are designed to conserve cash."

"We assume that Macy’s pays down enough debt to achieve 3.5x Adjusted Debt / EBITDAR and maintains a $1 billion cash balance."

"Using given unlevered free cash flow estimates and Project Phoenix, IRRs for the PE Buyers could be 32% to 56% at $40/share."

"1/11/10: "[W]e're extremely proud of the efforts in maintaining our cash and liquidity position." — Alcoa/Arconic Leadership"

"Cash balances can be faked in China through a combination of document forgery... and the availability of balances for rent."

"Investors continue to ascribe an irrational valuation to Mercury despite its below average growth and poor cash conversion."

"According to consensus¹ TIM’s capex reached its peak in 2017, indicating lower capex and stronger cash generation hereafter"

"We further observed that the CFO’s answers were incoherent and didn’t add up when asked to explain the capex and cash burn."