Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Our research has revealed that there is very little benefit to the conglomerate structure at Phillips 66 and no material reason that the midstream and/or chemicals businesses can't be separated from refining."

"It’s time for some fresh outside eyes and thinking at the Company from someone who isn’t looking to squander corporate assets on share buybacks at rich multiples, so that he can sell stock at inflated values."

"SGHC has a complex corporate structure with subsidiaries in jurisdictions that Transparency.org ranks low such as Paraguay and Cameroon, and in notorious tax havens like Alderney, Malta, Guernsey, and Cyprus."

"SGHC's FY24 Form 20-F identifies Raging River Trading Proprietary Limited (“Raging River”) as a “principal subsidiary” and represents that the Company owns 100% of its equity interest as of December 31, 2024."

"Spruce Point observes that Forescout appears to have experienced higher-than-average employee departures of late, particularly among its sales staff – confirming employee anecdotes that we’ve heard elsewhere."

"Stryker continued making bold claims in 2018 about its "commitment" to the ERP saying "we're not going to stop" and that consolidating systems to 1 ERP was important for the businesses to continue to perform."

"Still, Core management knows a sexy number when it sees one, so in Core's last earnings release, the company trumpeted its 32% sequential growth in the U.S. land portion of its Production Enhancement segment."

"What Carvana needs and its stock price implicitly discounts, is not only profitability enhancements which we believe are running out of steam, but acceleration of volume far in excess of "slight" unit growth."

"The strategic imperative of WFE self-sufficiency (ie, sourcing chipmaking equipment from domestic rather than foreign suppliers) ensures that ACMR will continue to take share from U.S. and Japanese suppliers."

"Investors should be cautioned that Weis is on its third auditor in the last four years. It also appears unusual to us that E&Y has served as its auditor twice, with the first time declining to be reappointed."

"There is clear evidence that REZI has fewer engineers and fewer patents and patent pending applications since the spin-off. We believe this is a troubling development for a Company named Resideo Technologies."

"Allonnia needs no further elaboration on its self-evident role as a front, given that it has almost no employees yet Ginkgo still reported a preposterous $38MM of deferred revenue and $5MM of revenue from it."

"An investment in PSH will entail substantial risks, including, but not limited to, those listed below, and a prospective investor should carefully consider the following summary of certain risk factors below."

"Management has historically been compensated on higher EBITDAP figures than reported to investors, and the proxy statement doesn't provide detailed calculations allowing investors to reconcile the difference."

"In our opinion, analysts incorrectly believe Aerojet is cheap by comparing it with overvalued “small cap” A&D peers, none of which even compete within its rocket propulsion or missile defense market segments."

"If his description of reps' role before, during, and after the implant is even half accurate, we believe Nevro is one internal whistleblower or inquisitive DOJ attorney away from its business model imploding."

"The accounts receivable balance has been declining year-over-year for eight of the last nine quarters. In contrast, revenue has been increasing year-over-year in every quarter, but at a declining growth rate."

"Most concerning, President Hasebe's position on the Compensation Advisory Committee creates a clear conflict of interest in the setting and oversight of long-term incentives critical to driving Kao's revival."

"We also find it concerning that Disney’s culture seemingly rewards executives and directors for avoiding conflict and punishes those who respectfully challenge the assumptions of leaders – even when justified"

"A large portion of the credit losses in the GSEs’ guarantee business during the financial crisis resulted from the small portion of subprime and Alt-A loans in their portfolios, which they no longer guarantee"

"Limbach claims to trace its origins back to 1901 to a one-person sheet metal roofing company. Limbach took its modern form when it became a public company in 2016 through a SPAC merger with 1347 Capital Corp."

"The reality is that BUR is much more concentrated, and has really been dependent on just four cases (including bailed-out Napo) to generate 66% of its net realized gains over the prior seven and a half years."

"One transplant center after another emphasized that the vast majority of liver transplants in the US are within the same OPO region and within driving distance, given how the organ allocation algorithm works."

"High fixed interest rate payments risk incentivising Management to bid uneconomically for short-term cash flow at significant long-term risk to shareholders, especially since Management owns very little stock"

"Twenty-two percent of Bain LBOs from 1984 to 1992 went bankrupt according to Eileen Applebaum in her book Private Equity at Work. Recent Bain-led retail busts include Toys “R” Us, Guitar Center, and Gymboree."

"I predict that I can achieve similar plasma levels and clinical efficacy with both an oral formulation and at low cost, even if it requires off-label prescribing. I'm totally in. That is an easy win for me..."

"The occurrence of 13 deaths during trials, in the pre-approval period - 12 in the foreign trials and one in the US EAP program - was a canary in the coal mine that predicted the post-marketing safety debacle."

"Consistent with color we received from researchers at companies like J&J who played leadership roles in developing these compounds, the molecules are trivial to synthesize and extremely similar to each other."

"While Martin Franklin and other intelligent capital allocators have created tremendous value through platforms, there are many examples of acquisition-intensive companies that have destroyed shareholder value"

"It appears that someone has been buying large amounts of OTM call options on MOXC to create a gamma squeeze, in which the dealer selling the call options must buy the reference equity to hedge their position."

"County records show that IIPR purchased the property from 0 Jason Street LLC on 01/31/2020 for $2.9M. 0 Jason Street LLC previously purchased the property from GM Ohio Holdings LLC for $200,000 on 04/02/2019."

"In our estimation, GSHD's prospects for long-term growth will be seriously hamstrung by a negative reputation earned by churning through the life's savings and homes of people who never were going to succeed."

"Technology & Development expense growth (including stock-based compensation) has outpaced revenue growth over the last five years, as expenses have grown at a 16% CAGR, while revenue has grown at an 11% rate."

"Coulombic efficiency and capacity vs cycle graphs should use reasonable y-axis scales. For instance, Coulombic efficiency should not be reported on a y-axis scale of 0-100% but rather 90-100% etc. — CellPress"

"The CEO's annual incentives did not rise or fall in line with annual financial performance, reflecting a potential misalignment in the short-term incentive design. — MSCI ESG Research, Inc., December 19, 2016"

""[A]wards are permitted to vest for below median relative performance which therefore fails the pay for performance hurdle ... A vote against has been applied" — Legal & General Investment Management, 5/15/24"

"Nothing in this presentation should be regarded as a representation by any person that this estimates will be achieved and the Company undertakes no duty to update its estimate — Perion earnings announcements"

"“...we don't think it's constructive to share those analyses publicly.” — Clarence Otis; “We're not going to -- we don't think it's useful to get into some real detailed level of specificity.” — Clarence Otis"

"“Silvercorp helped pay for police expenses in the investigation of Carnes’s operation. Evidence also shows that Silvercorp passed results of the Chinese police investigation to the BCSC.” — The Globe and Mail"

"I don't know if it's a comment on big pharma or not. You purchase a piece of big equipment, and then half a year later or whatever, you regret that you purchased it...That's just a reality. — AbbVie scientist"

""These ridiculous TAM numbers that are being thrown around and they know better. I showed them more accurate numbers when I was there but it wasn't a message that they liked very much." — Former BLI executive"

""So I'll just answer the video side. We're not sharing absolute amounts, but it's quickest growing, more rapid growing part of the company and grew over 50% year-over-year." — MGNI CFO, Q4 2017, March 8, 2018"

""the ones with the worst pain are the ones with the worst diabetes" and therefore the riskiest, adding that "a PDN label won't help Nevro's market share" and that most doctors he knows "feel similarly." — KOL"

"“Instead of selling devices, we started selling a service, and we established what we call a National OCS Program, NOP, where we are essentially like Amazon for organs.” — Ex-logistics employee at Transmedics"

"Last week, Delhi Police arrested a 50-year-old doctor from Delhi-based Indraprastha Apollo Hospital for her alleged involvement in an organ transplantation racket across Bangladesh and India. — Indian Express"

"“hyperphagia was never as bad as it is now on this drug” — Anonymous Parent. “I’m scared this is activating it more” — Anonymous Parent. “exactly us” — Anonymous Parent. “that’s so scary.” — Anonymous Parent."

"But, we needed clarity and confidence on the annuity stream including how quickly does it ramp, are there contract minimums, pricing, etc. As a result, we concocted our current — Alexander Nowak, Craig-Hallum"

"Disney shareholders have collectively lost over $200 billion. “Over $200 billion” represents the cumulative market value lost between Disney’s all-time high closing price on 03/08/21 and 10/06/23. — Endnote 6"

"Why is Lester Fernandes, former CFO of Nuvei who departed in 2018, still being listed as a Secretary, Treasurer and Director of GlobalOnePay according to a 2020 Texas Franchise Tax Public Information Report?"

"We believe Genius Sports, an overhyped revenue growth story assumed to benefit from the broader sports betting market, is facing competitive pressure and is unlikely to achieve its stated 25%+ growth targets"

"Campbell Soup Co. has been one of the worst performing food companies over the past two years. If a quick way out is available, the family members who control the firm should give it serious consideration..."

"Spruce Point observes that Philip Services Corp. also understated its Capex through the cash flow statement after completing its IPO in the U.S. and Canada. The stock eventually collapsed towards insolvency."

"This report is dedicated in the memory of Matt Farrell (1969-2022). Matt was Spruce Point's most dedicated and loyal Twitter follower. Matt was a true polymath and ardent supporter of short selling activism."

"Shown at right are illustrative estimates for deployment of 700MHz A and AWS-3 spectrum – these two examples alone generate over $1.10 of incremental AFFO per share for CCI (realized over a multiyear period)"

"We reiterate our reply that these questions refer to events in which the company did not participate. Disclosure duties under the Securities Trading Act do not bind the company, but its shareholders instead."

"Not only are analysts overestimating Penumbra's future blended market share across neurovascular aspiration thrombectomy types, but they are failing to account for the sub-segment dynamics within aspiration."

"If we let the incumbent Board members and management team continue in their ways, we believe Olive Garden may become the next Red Lobster...an iconic American brand destroyed by Darden’s Board and management"

"Darden management has suggested that $60 million (a paltry 1% of the total cost pool) in savings can be achieved, but we believe this is an order of magnitude lower than what is really needed AND achievable."

"Darden's massive scale, high AUV, and 100% company-operated store base should make Darden the leader in all revenue per employee categories – we believe the only reason it is not is poor corporate discipline"

"The fair value of the Company-owned retail stores nearly equates to Goodyear’s market cap and monetizing the stores at a ~13x EBITDA multiple (public peer average) would drive $4+ per share of value creation"