Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"KLA appears ready to leapfrog and make Lasertec obsolete as the transition to High NA gains momentum in 2024 – Lasertec cannot support High NA, while KLA has patiently prepared for it as the next phase of EUV lithography."

"“Other overhead costs include all other overhead and depreciation expenses such as IT expenses, limited warranty, travel, insurance, bad debt, title and registration and other administrative expenses.” — CVNA FY 2017 10-K"

"“When you consider the relationship between these types of apps and an analytics company, it makes a lot of sense — especially considering our history as a startup,” — Randy Nelson, Sensor Tower's head of mobile insights."

"Imagine 16 people with their own robots, and the robot is what’s handling the sample, and the person is just putting the plates on there and pressing buttons. — Ex-Twist employee in manufacturing, now a research professor"

"Investors have benefited from JANA’s actions as it sheds increasing light on the value of [Retail]. AGU shares have risen ~33% since mid-June, when JANA’s involvement in the stock became well known — Susquehanna, 10/23/12"

"“Agrium's Retail segment is under-earning” — Piper Jaffray, 12/2/12; “Agrium's management should engage with serious consideration many of the issues JANA and its proposed Directors bring up on costs” — Barclays, 12/13/12"

"It created a climate where it would incentivize agents to sell its parent company products (TransAmerica) by giving them a 25 increase in commissions, thus creating a conflict of intrest. — Anonymous Complaint (2/15/2024)"

"“When folks inside Gingko are showing us data—I think it's about 50/50 where experiments work or fail within the different workflows... There are still failures there when we're developing.” — Gingko Bioworks executive #2"

"“[M]any of the Distributors whom Defendants would expressly or impliedly characterize as solely ‘discount buyers’ are, in fact, pursuing the business opportunity.” — FTC v. Herbalife International of America, Inc., et al."

"You cannot do it. They have to do it. That's for sure. That's the reason I'm telling you, I believe that that letter is completely honest. It's a very honest letter. — Transplant surgeon in a leadership role at Vanderbilt"

"Norfolk Southern's April 2, 2024, statement to shareholders that "John [Orr] shaped and guided PSR initiatives at KCS" is a brazenly misleading interpretation of the facts. — Norfolk Southern press release (April 2, 2024)"

""Warrants" means that certain options to purchase a total aggregate of 18,100 Ordinary Shares of the company, issued to Dr. Shimon Eckhouse, Sara Brener and Michal Drayman on or about June 2005. — Share Purchase Agreement"

""Novartis said it cannot say much, but it does not expect any problems that would relate to Entresto [newly launching product], nor does it expect any significant impact on other businesses." — Bernstein, October 28, 2015"

"In a great, revealing interview with ADOMANI's CFO, Michael Menerey, by Seeking Alpha contributor The Street Sweeper published on August 29, 2017, Mr. Menerey confirmed that the company has not made any revenues for 2017."

"The IR Rep laughed that Lasertec has needed to rent space 'all over the map' to store tools before final tweaking and shipment. He says that Fab-4A has been useful in relieving that pressure. — Lasertec Investor Relations"

"At the moment, there are not many analysts offering projections on VFC. Spruce Point estimates are materially higher than whisper numbers that we have heard Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are using for Vets First Corp."

"Being an S&P 500 company is a validation of absolutely nothing, and can be a wasteland of corporate mediocrity. It affords investors zero protections against companies and their ability to scheme investors. Buyer beware!"

"Being an S&P 500 company is a validation of absolutely nothing, and can be a wasteland of corporate mediocrity. It affords investors zero protections against companies and their ability to scheme investors. Buyer beware!"

"Under current loan commitments and projected financing needs given consensus sales growth estimates, Carvana will exceed its current borrowing capacity by ~$1B by FY 2020. This deficit would increase to $2.5B in FY 2021."

"We believe an extended learning curve could negatively impact potential adoption of Aquablation at lower-volume hospitals since it would be more difficult for surgeons to gain the requisite experience with the procedure."

"Despite ~50% increase in revenue, ~800bps of margin expansion and improved free cash flow over the last two years, NFLX’s share price is down more than 40% from recent highs and has nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels"

"In a subsequent call, a member of HASI's accounting team declined to break out the composition of HASI's loans to EMIs, although the accounting team member confirmed that Vivint and its parent Sunrun received HASI loans."

"While this is not evidence of malfeasance, in our opinion, it indicates massive amounts of Related Party Receivables and Payables are netted routinely in Eurofins, and the system for tracking them seems far from perfect."

"Spruce Point observes that IPX has issued multiple press releases about partnerships and non-binding MOUs, and in some cases they have lapsed or are no longer actively discussed. IPX also has still not reported revenues."

"Marathon’s stated profitability metrics: Compare across different geographies; Do not back out ~$1.3 billion of MLP-qualifying EBITDA in R&M segment today; Do not adjust for RINs expenses avoided from Speedway ownership."

"The 7% pullback in the stock was severe, and in our view, is indicative of a loss of investor confidence in HES's execution capabilities, following a string of production misses and a lack of notable exploration success."

"David's deep experience executing a portfolio repositioning and tremendous international oil & gas experience will allow him to contribute unique insight to the current strategic decision-making process on the Hess Board"

"Rather than waste $16 million of shareholder capital on this costly proxy contest, we contend McDonald’s should allocate that capital toward responsible, ethical sourcing and other important sustainability and ESG areas."

"The Company acquired Textile Effects as a healthy business, broke it, failed to deliver on its promises of improved profitability, yet is now attempting to take credit for a turnaround that should never have been needed."

"We believe Huntsman asked Ms. Lin to join the Board during settlement discussions with Starboard earlier this year because of her significant experience as a public company director serving in all public board functions."

"Spruce Point’s warns that Evoqua’s final 10-K Annual Report made multiple alarming revisions to its “Growth Opportunities” around margin expansion, cash flow improvements, and capabilities servicing complex contaminants."

"Spruce Point believes the current consensus estimates incorporate significant improvement in revenue since the deal was announced on Jan 23rd (either through fundamental improvements and/or aggressive revenue synergies)."

"As a result, we conclude that the vast majority of the RMB 1.326 billion that was supposedly transferred offshore either constituted a violation of Chinese capital controls or the cash was never there in the first place."

"GGO’s portfolio features some of the best real estate development assets in the country. We believe GGO will have the balance sheet and the intellectual and operating capital to take full advantage of these opportunities"

"Under the terms of the fully executed Cornerstone Investment Agreement, GGO will retain 80% of every dollar PF GGP raises above $10 per share, up to the value of the ~$300mm deferred tax liabilities and the Hughes claim."

"In total, since Clarence Otis was named CEO in 2004, Darden has spent approximately $6.1 billion – or $46.50 per Darden share, nearly the entire market capitalization of Darden – on capital expenditures and acquisitions."

"We estimate that Twist sells to Ginkgo at 1.5 cents per base pair, and experts indicate that the cost to manufacture is “probably 9-10 cents at this point,” which by our math comes out to a gross margin of negative 533%."

"While choices around insourcing vs. outsourcing impact headcount comparisons, BK also spends the greatest % of revenues on professional and outside service fees compared to other custody, asset management and G-SIB peers"

"Elevated DSOs signal cash flow collection issues. The problem is also suggested by an accounts payable specialist posting on the company review website Glassdoor. Kratos is now expanding discussion about DSO in its 10-K."

"WD-40 has significant unsold inventory and slackened demand it must deal with before it will see any benefit from lower crude prices. We estimate it could be upwards of 6 months out before there is any potential benefit."

"Bristol-Myers highlights the lower current earnings multiple and near-term accretion from Celgene in the short term. However, we believe Celgene may significantly impair Bristol-Myers’ financial profile in the long term."

"Companies based in Beijing and connected to the major SOE enterprises, like Sinohytec, will generally be more successful than companies in South China backed by a local government without ties to central SOE's (Synergy)."

"A plan that sets GGP’s secured debt and unsecured debt to Prime + 0.75% and Prime + 1.50%, respectively, would allow for substantial deleveraging and further increase the probability of a highly successful reorganization"

"Chairman & CEO Jason Jiang, board member & venture capital star Neil Shen, and close business associate of Mr. Jiang & venture capital star Xiong Xiangdong were among the selling shareholders of Allyes at the rich price."

"We use the annual change in sales reported under multiple performance obligations, and apply a range of percentages to this figure to estimate the revenue booked upfront from Axon’s aggressive revenue recognition policy."

"We have significant concerns that Axon raised $234m in June 2018, when its balance sheet had $96m of cash, no debt, and it was projecting accelerated revenue growth of 18-20% with healthy earnings projected at over $30m."

"In Spruce Point's opinion, CHD's current equity method accounting for its Armand Products business is highly aggressive, if not outright flawed, and allows it to avoid full consolidation of an entity it largely controls."

"Kornit's CFO was the CFO and a long-time executive of MRV Communications (Nasdaq: MRVC) which had a large financial restatement, delisted its stock the pink sheets, and settled fraud charges related to option backdating."

"We note that in half of the six earnings reports that were affected by the accounting “irregularities”, it appears that PPG either “beat” or “met” consensus earnings expectations by way of artificially inflated earnings:"

"Disclosures are varied and limited among peers related to inventory reserves and charges. However, it’s clear that reserves run closer to 3.0% - 4.0% and not 7.7% - 27.9% as illustrated by Mettler’s foreign subsidiaries."

"PERI's partnership with Microsoft is 35% of its total revenues. We find clues that indicate its partnership is falling below target, and may be more than just temporarily impaired due to the loss of a Yandex partnership."

"In actuality, STJ's communications protocol uses a simple data mixing technique to address performance, not data protection. St. Jude Medical's own supplier, Zarlink, refers to this as "whitening" rather than encryption."

"Stacy Nieuwoudt, Elliott nominee for Phillips 66’s (NYSE: PSX) Board and former energy analyst, explains how the Company’s conglomerate structure has contributed to its ongoing operating and share-price underperformance."

"New Pacific has purchased 3 Chinese mining projects through Silvercorp. All were hyped considerably around the time of purchase, but have since been suspended, sold at a loss, or surrendered back to the local government."

"To ensure the election of Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo, it is essential that shareholders vote FOR Nelson Peltz and Jay Rasulo and WITHHOLD on Michael B.G. Froman, Maria Elena Lagomasino and all three Blackwells Nominees."

"Advent likely paid close to 20% above what it would have intended to pay had it (A) had access to management's Illustrative Guidance and (B) waited just several weeks to observe the effect of the pandemic on the economy."

"Being an S&P 500 company is a validation of absolutely nothing, and can be a wasteland of corporate mediocrity. It affords investors zero protections against companies and their ability to scheme investors. Buyer beware!"

"Upon closer inspection, we see that Stryker’s foreign earnings before income taxes (“EBT”) has been falling as a percentage of total EBT, and its foreign margins are falling, yet it is claiming greater U.S. tax benefits."

"TSMC views the Lasertec ACTIS EUV tool as just a niche R&D tool for their mask shop; that it is unusable for production in TSMC's fab; and that TSMC has stopped buying any more of Lasertec's flagship ACTIS A150 machines."

"Pre-merger, Telaria talked about the potential benefits of CTV for the election, even expanding its risk factors around seasonality. Yet, Magnite was quiet on the topic until Q3 2020, when it began discussing the effect."