Callouts & quotes from 766+ activist slides

"In Q1 2019, we expect gross margins to be in the range of 61% to 63% and build higher over the rest of the year — Axon Q1'19E Gross Margin Guidance. Gross margin of 59.5% represents 260 basis points of sequential improvement, driven by strength in software and sensors, partially offset by TASER 7 program startup costs, including customer trade-in credits — Axon Q1'19 Press Release. In Q1 TASER segment gross margins were pressured by two main factors ASP, average selling price and scrap rates both will improve over time and we're improving even as we speak. — Axon Q1'19 Conf Call. Additionally, margins were compressed related to the rollout of our newest TASER device and increased data storage and tariff and customs expenses. — Axon Q1'19 10-Q."

"Sure. Their largest customer is Google. They don't disclose that for some reason. Maybe Google doesn't want to, but they do work with Google in Brazil, which is your largest customer, and in Chile as well as, and in Colombia, I guess, which is a very... because Dlocal their core business is doing cross-border payments, right? So, collecting locally, doing the exchange in remitting the money abroad. It's their core business where they make more money because you have this portion of doing the FX, right, converting on from local currency to U.S. dollars. And for Google they don't that, they do local collecting in local settlements. So, their margins there are very, very thin. But the volume of Google is just huge, right? — Source A"

""Our lease financing team inside SunPower has been very actively working on improving our lease offering as well. We're just a few days away from announcing a significant addition to our lease portfolio, which takes funding well through 2021. Most importantly, it doesn't just provide great lease capability to customers and our dealer partners, this technology actually increased our gross margins over $0.40 a watt. I would say this is one of the areas since we became much more focused on the space that has really improved our fundamental financials as a company. Advances in financing are playing a big part in driving our increased profitability, but also our increased dealer loyalty." — SunPower Investor Call, September 10, 2020"

""During the fourth quarter, we continued to benefit from our ongoing investments and focus on ecommerce. Our e-comm business grew over 60% in the quarter as we benefited from consumers shifting to online purchasing." — Christine Sacco, CFO, Q4 2020 Call. "The financial profile of our online business is pretty consistent with brick-and-mortar. So although we have different tactics, the overall cost of connecting and winning with consumers is fairly similar for us." — Ronald Lombardi, Q4 2020 Call. "For Amazon, our margins would be slightly better or the same. We don't have the middleman, but when we sell direct to the consumer, the cost of the transaction goes a bit higher. For example, shipping." — Former PBH Employee."

"The acquisitions that you've done since the beginning of the strategic cycle, are they similar margins? Or are they margin accretive to your mix? — Canaccord Analyst Q2 2023. Similar margin profile. But the cost synergies and something I perhaps should have mentioned in our -- in my remark, but the cost synergies that we are able to generate is going very, very well as well. So I think we are seeing, in all fairness, a bit more cost synergies than we were anticipating during due diligence, number one. And then the performance of the companies that we've acquired, is also up to par, if not a bit better than what we were anticipating in the first place, actually very consistent with our legacy business — CEO L'Heureux."

""Margins will expand in coming years, driven by mix shift towards premium alcohol and ingredients products..." — Apis Capital Dec 2015; "The company benefits from secular tailwinds in favor of whiskey – rye whiskey in particular" and "Existing Business Growth with Significant Market Share and Sustainable Barriers." — Apis Capital Dec 2015; "The real strategic win, however, appears on the balance sheet as "barreled distillate". These barrels are filled with distillate, booked at cost, and owned by MGP for the aging process. In a sense, this is MGP's "reserve" which they can access at any point after aging for 4 years. Aged barrels of distillate can sell for 3x the cost after ~4 years of aging." — Apis Capital Dec 2015"

"We targeted, although we don't have a specific date in mind but overall annualized basis we ought to be able to get [SCC] up over 15%. As you capture the new products Verifi will be a piece of that. We get good margins out of Verifi...But all in, businesses ought to be north of 15% EBIT margin business. — Greg Poling, President & CEO, August 2016; These are all high-margin specialty applications...You can see the margins for construction are best in class here running from 23%, to just under 26%. We maintain these margins because of the specialty nature of the product, the distribution network, and the fact that they specified for high-end applications. — Greg Poling, President & CEO, May 2016"

""Vanderbilt is the biggest heart transplant program not in the country but in the world. The volume is gigantic. They do zero TransMedics...they are so upset...they hate the company." — Transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt. "I know I can’t use it too much, or I’m not going to be making any money, and then I’m not going to have a job...if a hospital thinks they’re losing money by providing a service, are they really going to go out and provide a service? So, that’s why I said I had to have an actual financial talk with my head of finance and describe the margins and how they’re doing." — Transplant surgeon and transplant program director at a major academic center in Pennsylvania."

"Yes. Obviously, we don't give margin targets by segment, but I would say that within ESG and Climate, our focus is really on driving top line growth, not margin expansion. And so we're not targeting for the margin to expand from current levels. — CFO Q2'2022; I would say I would not overly focus on the margins in any given segment in any period. And more generally, we are not focused heavily on segment margins or the company margin overall. Our primary focus is on driving strong EPS growth. The margin is an input into that, and our pace of spend is an input into that. But overall, we're really focused on driving that attractive EPS growth over time. — CFO Q2'2023"

""We strongly believe that we are in a great position to establish a first-mover advantage to roll out a product that performs well on a pizza... Nondairy cheese, on the other hand, has relatively few players and is a space we feel we can be successful in." — COO Beckmann, Feb 4, 2021. "We feel very good about swapping cheese, I guess, traditional cheese volume for plant-based cheese volume and the margins are very, very healthy." — CEO, Feb 10, 2022. "Quite frankly, who likes the product? They have a substantial plan for retail and are pushing hard, but I think the sales team is struggling." — Former U.S. Sales Executive, Spruce Point Interview."

"“If you’re a sub shop owner and you have to make a ham sandwich three different ways to make it right once, you’re going to lose money. That’s that analogy. It’s something that I don’t think they get. For my aunt or someone along that line, I would just say, think of any business, if you have to do it multiple times to make one product, you have to make sure that every time you do it, that cost is extraordinarily low and that you know how to price it to get the appropriate positive gross margins to eventually achieve at least operational net zero. But if you can’t make a profit, you’re not long for this world.” — Ex-senior executive of Gen9"

"The CEO came from Chevron Phillips Chemical. That is another thing I think they should look at. Take Mark Lashier, he's an expert there, and spin off that business. — Anonymous Investor; We have had significant issues with Mark Lashier, who's the CEO. He is on the hot seat at this point due to these operational issues. — Anonymous Investor; This last Q4 where Phillips came out and their refining margins were so weak, so weak. That is just fundamentally unacceptable. — Anonymous Investor; Mark controls everything and that is not a good thing and as you can see that does not lead to strong corporate performance. — Anonymous Investor"

""So from a PreCheck perspective, we've talked about, I think, over the last probably 8 quarters that we've been carrying expenses overhead for PreCheck and that's why we're so optimistic on our high incremental margins." — CEO, Q4 2023, Feb 28, 2024. "And just quickly on the PreCheck. Look, PreCheck is going really well. It's gaining great momentum. We're live today in 91 locations, driving market share. In terms of upsell rates, we have 90% plus marketing opt-in rate. And our upsell rate for those members or those people joining PreCheck that are not already CLEAR members is approaching 20%." — CFO, Q4 2024, Feb 26, 2025."

"Both Resideo and Snap One share a strong culture of innovation and employee bases dedicated to supporting their integrators and driving value in the markets where they operate. We see significant benefits for integrators in the combined businesses with a wider selection of third-party and proprietary products, access and enhancements to support services and rapid product fulfillment through a comprehensive branch footprint and strong digital capabilities. All of this creates an attractive financial profile that we expect to be accretive to revenue growth, margins and non-GAAP EPS for Resideo. — CEO Deal Call April 2024"

"It’s worth noting that most of the revenue associated with a hybrid capture workflow comes from library prep. It doesn’t actually come from hybrid capture. Those are the two components in that workflow. So, most of that market, the number that I specified, most of that is library preop. And another two players are added there: Illumina, who makes the machines, and NEG, and IDT just acquired a company that specializes in this. It’s well-known that they don’t manufacture their library prep kit. They have to purchase it elsewhere and resell it, so their margins are less on that. — Former employee now at a key competitor"

"“...if growth has been decelerating dramatically while Box spent like a drunken sailor, we wonder how Box can improve margins while stabilizing growth, given the low gross margins and low sales efficiency” — D.A. Davidson, November 2019; “The company’s revenue performance has been nothing to celebrate this year. ~11% revenue growth in FY’21, while almost the entirety of the software space is parading the past year as the year of digital transformation acceleration, has left BOX shares at a standstill and is head-scratching as the pandemic should logically be a major tailwind for BOX” — Craig-Hallum, March 2021"

""Just in Workforce Now...I would say from a margin perspective since it's leveraging our existing SaaS applications and leveraging our existing auto payback and infrastructure, margins are equivalent or slightly higher than core traditional payroll." — Carlos A. Rodriguez, President, Small Business; "...On the margin side, we are seeing as I think, Gary, mentioned today fewer service calls and I think that would lead one to believe that we would have margin expansion as a result of the RUN product eventually being rolled out fully..." — Campbell B. Langdon, President, Major Account Division"

"The intense competition we face in the sales of our products and services and general economic and business conditions could put pressure on us to change our prices. If our competitors offer deep discounts on certain products or services or develop products that the marketplace considers more valuable, we may need to lower prices, introduce pricing models and offerings that are less favorable to us, or offer other favorable terms in order to compete successfully. Any such changes could reduce revenues and margins and adversely affect our operating results. — DV 2022 10-K"

"“Derma is a great place to be in ... generally, you are going to be pricing higher than mass cosmetics so the margins are better, but very often you will be going through the same retail channels as mass so there a distribution overlaps if you are already playing in mass. Because it tends to occupy a middle ground between prestige and mass cosmetics it's also one of those items that tends to be less susceptible to budget cutting in a recession as well versus prestige cosmetics” — Former Unilever Prestige Cosmetics Division Brand Director, Oasis interview November 2023"

""If you lined up all these biological instruments, like every instrument you can imagine for life sciences, I don't know the exact number; it's gotta be in the 99th or 98th percentile on price. It is up there. And look at 10X, I mean, flip this thing on its head. 10X offers a dirt-cheap system. It's $60k, $100k, something like that, easily covered under a grant, and then they sell these consumables. That are kind of expensive, but the margins are great. It's a razor blade model. BLI model is the reverse - a $2,000,000 device, and a $2000 chip" — Former BLI executive"

""The company is on track to deliver top-tier earnings and revenue growth, with industry competitive margins - including ~400 basis points of operating ratio improvement during the second half of 2024." — Norfolk Southern press release (Mar. 20, 2024). "Norfolk Southern has brought on John Orr as COO to accelerate the execution of its strategy. John Orr is a PSR expert and comes to Norfolk Southern following a long and successful career at multiple railroads including Canadian National and CPKC." — Norfolk Southern press release (Mar. 20, 2024)."

"LiNiCo plans to commence production later this year, building toward cathode production capacity of about 10,000 tons per year. At just 33% of that rate and 60% of applicable commodity prices, the LiNiCo facility should generate more than $100 million in sales with pre-tax operating income margins exceeding 30%, adding 40 good paying Nevada jobs and making a landmark contribution to Comstock's Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (“ESG”), Product and Process Stewardship and Climate Smart Mining goals. — Comstock Press Release"

"“We’re number one in about 2/3 of the segments in which we compete...We’re number one in the cement additives business...Number two in concrete admixtures worldwide...We’re number one in a segment of the waterproofing business” — Greg Poling, President & CEO, January 2016. “We have a nimble, very low capital intensity business, and a very flexible footprint...We think these are sustainable advantages...Our margins and return on invested capital are as high as you’ll see in the industry...” — Greg Poling, President & CEO, January 2016."

""The latest portfolio restructuring announcement this morning reflects the last in a series of value-creating divestitures which have been consistent with our stated strategy of focusing on a differentiated portfolio...I expect this new company to generate revenue growth at a rate well in excess of global GDP and average EBITDA margins approaching 15%. We will be a strong vibrant $9 billion differentiated chemical company with tens of thousands of different products and formulations." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, February 2007"

"Absolutely does; it’s at least an order of magnitude off on the revenue side. I could see tens of millions if everything went right, but where are you going to get the volumes you mentioned? The pipeline can be 10 or 20 years to get significant volumes, so its difficult to imagine hundreds of millions of dollars on the recycling side. Margins will be negative, and I wouldn’t want that much capacity. I don’t see it. It’s way too early to talk about that kind of money and volumes and that number of players. — Lithium Industry Expert"

"“Because when we delight our members, we can drive more engagement, revenue and profit than the competition...Our goals are to sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow... Since our global launch in 2016, we’ve been able to invest heavily in our slate...while steadily increasing our operating margins (up more than 5X, from 4% to 21% over the same period) and growing our free cash flow (from negative $3.3B in 2019 to positive $6.9B in 2023).” — Netflix Q4 2023 Letter to Shareholders"

"Because when we delight our members, we can drive more engagement, revenue and profit than the competition...Our goals are to sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow... Since our global launch in 2016, we've been able to invest heavily in our slate...while steadily increasing our operating margins (up more than 5X, from 4% to 21% over the same period) and growing our free cash flow (from negative $3.3B in 2019 to positive $6.9B in 2023). — Netflix Q4 2023 Letter to Shareholders"

""In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations" — DuPont Management. "...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points." — Jeff Zeakauskas, JP Morgan. "...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint" — DuPont Management."

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — Jeff Zekauskas, JP Morgan. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont Management."

"“And just quickly on the whole B2B side partnerships, is that all, I mean, that's sort of a money losing business. What's the strategy there?” — Spruce Point Question. “It's definitely a money losing business. Caryn wants to be ubiquitous... I don't think companies are willing to pay a dollar a person or a dollar a transaction... I think when I was there, they were really focused on sports and sports had no margins, and we actually paid the sports stadiums for the right to be there.” — Former CLEAR Employee"

"Included in transaction revenues was the impact of a newly negotiated contract with our Payments partner at Upserve and ShopKeep. This new contract did two things, provide us with better economics than the businesses we're achieving on their own and also brought us better control over the end customer relationships. As a result of this we were able to realize an uplift in revenue of approximately $7 million in the quarter and greater gross margins as well, this is a great news story. — CFO Nussey, May 2021"

"So, you're going to attract a lot of attention from Chinese companies that would love to come in with like a substantially lower price. And quite frankly, they're glad to get 20 or 30 points margins. And their costs are a lot cheaper because it's all developed and built in China. So, the threat to Zebra is really there's like a whole pack of like Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers nipping at their heels from the bottom of the market with lower cost solutions. — Former Senior Product Manager at Zebra Technologies"

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — JP Morgan analyst. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont Management."

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012 to 2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 IR, March 14, 2024; "Q: ...[W]hen you look at the differences... between Wall Street and that $14 billion, where do you think the biggest delta still are? Is it chems? Is it refining? A: The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook..." — Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012 to 2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 IR, March 14, 2024; "Q: ...[W]hen you look at the differences... between Wall Street and that $14 billion, where do you think the biggest delta still are? Is it chems? Is it refining? A: The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook..." — Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — Jeff Zekauskas, JP Morgan. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont."

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012 to 2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 IR, March 14, 2024; "Q: ...[W]hen you look at the differences... between Wall Street and that $14 billion, where do you think the biggest delta still are? Is it chems? Is it refining? A: The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook..." — Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

"We’ll also continue to improve gross margins. The Company’s current gross margin is about 52%. We can earn a higher total company margin by achieving best-in-class margins in more categories and business units. Based on industry benchmarking, we believe that only about half of P&G businesses have gross margins better than their competitive peer set. As we get more of our businesses to best-in-class levels, we’ll increase our total company margin. — A.G. Lafley, Former CEO 2007 Annual Report"

"“So on the other hand, what I would also say, the major advantage of our new structure is that it gives us full transparency on where we stand with our profitability on a stand-alone basis for our businesses... And this, of course, got blurred in the past because people were looking at the integrated margin. This is over. We will look at stand-alone margins. And I think personally, this will be a very big lever to improve profitability.” — Thomas Toepfer, CFO of Covestro, September 2021"

""Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past three years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability." — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; "Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds." — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"“We will improve gross margin by optimizing our data center footprint, public cloud infrastructure and the cost to serve our customers. In addition to the data center migration that we've discussed over the past year, we'll be driving efficiencies in various aspects of delivering our service such as storage, search and conversion. We also expect more of our business to come from add-on products, which will naturally drive higher margins.” — CFO Dylan Smith, Q3 FY2020 Earnings Call"

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability... — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/ commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds. — BMO, November 30, 2023"

""[TWC's] strength as the second largest US cable system operator, with strong operating trends, healthy liquidity and strengthening credit metrics." — Moody's. "the cable TV business is gaining subscriber units with its digital video and high-speed data services. Capital needs of this business should remain relatively stable, but video programming costs and new-service rollout costs are likely to hamper meaningful improvement in OIBDA margins over at least the near term." — S&P."

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability... — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/ commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds. — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"“Basic PK – since the half-life of Pitolisant is approximately 20 hours about half the drug levels will be circulating when the 2nd dose is administered so this is added to the new peak plasma levels on Day 2, and again on day 3, day 4 etc., until steady state plasma levels are reached... Thus, the QTcT study is intentionally misleading, and the statements made about safety margins are therefore overestimated and incorrect.” — Pharmacology consultant engaged by Scorpion Capital"

"Really? Interesting. I hadn't noticed that. You have to understand how the revenue is being generated. Since there's a packaged offering, you may see there is a price negotiation. There could be situations where the programmatic revenue might be shifting from pre to post. The growth might be slowing but being shifted around. I believe the margins from the programmatic partnerships are higher, I would say so, yes. — Spruce Point Interview On The Cease of Disclosure April 2023"

"This begs three questions: 1) What is the value proposition of the Taexx system if homeowners don't even realize they have the system installed as a home buying benefit, 2) If conventional pest control sales were 90% of the business, and HomeTeam D2D marketers were successful, why does Rollins need Fox's marketers to push the use of Taexx, and 3) If HomeTeam's margins are well below corporate average, why is Rollins pushing investment in lower margin business?"

"“one way of getting the good stuff, so to speak” — Mass General physician; “the transplant administrators...they’re addicted to the volume”; “if we can increase our lung volumes by, say 40 lungs...we’re a tier one OPO and that’s how close the margins are as far as being in compliance.”; “if I do 10 transplants, one or two deaths can shut down the program...but if I do 100, then I have a lot more leeway...the money is funny money.” — Transplant surgeon, Utah"

""What we have done with the Board is we said, listen, now is a perfect time for us; we are out 120 days. Let's look at all of our margins and see if there are areas we could get a lot more effective. So, leaning a process out from early days of design to where it might be today, leveraging technology that was not available perhaps in the past, using our capital appropriately for that technology I think is important." — Steven Anenen, CDK Global, Former CEO"

""UniFirst continues to lack a detailed, cohesive, publicly-articulated strategy for returning the business towards mid-single digit % revenue growth and high teens % EBITDA margins. We have written in the past that UniFirst's decision to reject Cintas' unsolicited takeout offer 'puts the shortest route to maximum shareholder value creation in the rearview mirror.' Today's results suggest that the alternative path may prove bumpy and winding." — J.P. Morgan"

""And under the watch of Bill Caesar really done a great job of putting in multiple disciplines with that business in transforming that business really over the last 7, 8-years." — Patrick Dovigi, GFL CEO. "disjointed operating footprint and lower margins" — Moody's. "WCA will likely experience significantly lower organic volumes during the second quarter and potentially even later on, which could cause total revenue to contract for the full year." — S&P."

""As a leading integrated downstream energy provider with differentiated but complementary assets in highly attractive markets, we deliver consistent and compelling value for shareholders throughout economic and commodity cycles." — Phillips 66 Management, Phillips66Delivers.com; "[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"

"Q: If the margins on this business are so good, why is this company exiting the business? A: It's not exiting. It's relocating its business to Shandong province. Q: Why aren't they moving the equipment? A: It feels its better to buy new equipment in Shandong. Q: But presumably this is expensive equipment if ONP is paying around $13 million. How could buying new equipment be more sensible than transporting it? A: I don't know. — Narrator/Mr. Yen"

"We believe that GFL is relatively better insulated from COVID-19 volume declines due to a significant portion of its revenues coming from residential customers and fewer landfill assets which translates into less decremental margins. We continue to see a pathway for GFL to improve its margins and FCF every year over our forecast period, driven by still strong pricing, cost rationalization, and a larger solid waste footprint. — JP Morgan"

"“Yes. So on Matrox, again you mentioned it, about $100 million portfolio today. The gross margin and operating profits are accretive overall to Zebra but not quite to where some of the other public companies in the space are at. So again, we think that's, again, a great opportunity for us to grow and expand margins with -- across our machine vision portfolio over time as the business scales.” — CFO Winters, JPMorgan Conf. May 2022"

"Documents show Waterpik’s gross margins were 47.7% - 49.1% pre-acquisition, and the CFO said he expected 200 - 300bp gross margin expansion. Fast forward to early 2019, the CFO’s recent comment that gross margins are now “on par” with the company’s gross margin (pre-tariff), indicate that margins have contracted lower in this product line closer to 44% - and this even after price increases announced in Q3 2018!"

"Gross margin was affected by product mix, including an increase in customer-funded R&D and early-stage programs. The inclusion of Themis, which has lower gross margins as well as an inventory step-up associated with the Themis purchase accounting. Germane will be dilutive to our gross margin and adjusted EBITDA margin in FY 2019, but accretive to fiscal 2019 adjusted EPS — CEO Aslett on Q4'18 Earnings Call"

"2010 Year End Call: “Going forward, we do anticipate year-over-year gross margin improvement, partly resulting from our focus in our manufacturing operating model.”; 2011 Year End Call: “For gross margins, we are calling for the underlying range to remain steady, with a subtle, favorable bias subject to the variations driven by currency, business mix and global operations investments” — Stryker Corp."

"In one meeting with three FGD executives from an FGD producer, we mentioned that RINO generates 35% gross margins. The result was comical. Each face registered palpable surprise (not quite shock), which then became expressions of confusion as they turned to each other while asking “35?” After a couple of seconds, the confusion subsided and was replaced with slight nods and barely perceptible grins."

"And we see that probably as maybe better than some of the other news in the distribution space largely because of the levers that we can pull still around price optimization and as importantly, around our exclusive brands. Those products have dramatically higher margins than our average and they continue to grow at a much, much faster rate than the overall business. — CFO Trunzo, Q4'23, Feb 2023"