Callouts & quotes from 2,092+ activist slides

"We observe inventory purchase obligations as a percentage of revenue increasing. This further strengthens our belief that inventory is building up and not selling-through to customers."

"LHCG disclosures regarding inorganic sales contributions from acquisitions seem to imply that Almost Family is not generating nearly the level of revenue that management first forecast"

"Based on current implied run rate revenues of $297m, we estimate Leidos has paid 3.4x sales, or a substantial premium to benchmark deals in the airport security and detection industry."

"Since 2007, DSP has spent over $557 million, or $26.65 per share (vs. current price of $8.03), on R&D and acquisitions, yet revenue has declined by approximately 35% during this period"

"“Also, we’re a very successful integrator of accretive acquisitions over the years, all of which have contributed to our growth in revenue and profits.” — 2011 Investor Forum (2/10/11)"

"As intellectually dishonest as Analyst A’s projections appear, those of Analyst B and C seem more egregious, since they predict even higher revenues and commercialized products counts."

"Because AMT books these loan repayments (i.e. return legs of financial round trips) as rent revenue, the repayments artificially inflate AMT’s revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, and AFFO."

"We believe overreliance on revenue without minimum profitability threshold misaligns executives with shareholders and allows for manipulation (e.g., acquisitions or agency transition)"

"Yahoo should still milk its PC-based revenues... for as long as it can; just as Tim Armstrong milked AOL's dial-up; but this should be done with the bare minimum of headcount required"

"We believe overreliance on revenue without minimum profitability threshold misaligns executives with shareholders and allows for manipulation (e.g., acquisitions or agency transition)"

"After achieving significant adoption among UHC customers, Naviguard intends to roll out its services broadly to other insurers. Such a move endangers the remainder of MPLN's revenues."

""Reporting revenue in the wrong period gives investors a distorted view of a company's financial condition" — Melissa Hodgman, Associate Director in the SEC's Division of Enforcement."

"Management touts that, taken together, its new products launched since 2015 have been wildly successful and a powerful driver of core revenue growth — Spruce Point Capital Management."

"If management can't seem to get its GAAP treatment of currency hedging correctly, do you really trust its ability to accurately present Non-GAAP foreign currency results on revenues?"

"While investors have cheered WSP's ability to meet net revenue and Adj. EBITDA targets the past few years, we believe investors should scrutinize persistent missed net capex targets."

"That $2.5 billion implies that athena wins 6% of the hospital industry. This is 200% of the current market because less than 3% of hospitals outsource their revenue collection today."

"Spruce Point finds it very alarming that the weighted-average pull through rate has crept higher since 2020. A higher pull-through rate allows management to estimate higher revenues."

"Zillow changed the language in its recent 10-K from closed within two years to generally within two years. Does this mean Zillow can pre-book more revenue from the extended timeline?"

"Riot's business model is dysfunctional, characterized by seemingly endless capital spending, lack of operating leverage, unpredictable revenue, poor returns, and negative cash flow."

"We recommend Autodesk target a minimum of 500bps reduction in sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, which represents approximately $275 million of potential savings."

"Spruce Point estimates that Evoqua’s run rate revenue for the quarter would have severely missed Street estimates by ~8%. In addition, Evoqua contributed a $49 million pre-tax loss."

"Based on the request, the Company believes the focus of the inquiry concerns certain revenue recognition practices and the Company’s relationship with one of its fulfillment vendors"

"Intuit has among the lowest CFO margins and highest SBC per employee. Importantly, Intuit has the worst revenue visibility (by far), a reason SaaS companies trade at rich multiples."

"Approximately $8 million of the $10 million in revenue recognized from the Merck milestone achievement should not be included in the gross revenue because it is passthrough revenue."

"We recommend Autodesk target a minimum of 500bps reduction in sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, which represents approximately $275 million of potential savings."

"Altogether, these components sum to $385.8 million of lost MPLN revenue in 2022, which translates to an organic Adjusted EBITDA and Levered Free Cash Flow decline of $294.2 million."

"Spruce Point believes this could be a way for Zillow to mask the true deceleration in Premier Agent especially if they are not going to disclose Premier Agent revenue going forward."

"The timing and scale of any such rebate may be difficult to predict and may cause fluctuations in our quarterly and annual revenues, gross profit and operating profit. — Kornit 20-F"

"Our revenues are lower than the Street and incorporate a lower multiple reflecting a struggling legacy business, and a low quality clean energy business assembled via acquisitions."

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"An offline revenue decline of 4.5% is quite different from even the “healthy” or “stable” Peiyou core business which management described, let alone the 52.4% CFO Rong Luo implied."

"HIMS has pitched itself as an e-commerce company with enterprise SaaS characteristics, including 90%+ “recurring revenue” and a declining CAC. We believe neither claim is accurate."

"Investors should pay attention to trends in Amdocs' working capital spend given that a material share of Company revenue is accounted for using the percentage-of-completion method."

"On the surface, PERI's revenue multiple appears in-line with its small cap advertising technology peers. However, it likely trades at a premium because of inflated revenue results."

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"While the world has shifted from desktop revenues to mobile ones, Yahoo has experienced a number of changes in leadership, changes in the board, and outside distractions including:"

"ACMR recently disclosed a long-term revenue target of $1.5 billion for business outside China. Our reaction to such a lofty goal was a healthy mix of disappointment and excitement."

"If we assume that MPWR's inventory metrics should be in line with industry peers, and that $245 - $265m of revenue is overstated, it implies ~$93m of inventory is also overstated."

"If losses accelerate from increasing its production footprint with no revenues, at 0.5x to 1.0x tangible book value, IPX’s share price could see up to 95% downside risk potential."

"Our analysis required significant effort to extract and estimate Ambry Genetics’ quarterly revenues and test volumes due to limited public disclosure by Konica Minolta (“Konica”)."

"Premiumization in Haircare - Kao has been caught off-guard at home by premiumization in hair care, resulting in a sharp contraction in domestic Health & Beauty revenue since 2020."

"An increase in scale and an improvement in revenue mix (lower mix of servicing fees, higher mix of net interest revenue) should have driven margins above the 2006 pro forma levels"

"Publishing's record over the last few years, however, has been less spectacular as title launches have not generated significant revenue based on industry rankings as shown below."

"Spruce Point believes DV's revenue growth expectations appear to be on the aggressive side. DV is expected to outgrow ad-tech and the global advertising agency space by almost 4x."

"However, even if the Display and Search businesses were included together, we estimate that combined business would still be losing almost $300 million on revenue of $931 million."

"We believe Ailirui is a sham counterparty because a) its SAIC financials show that it is a tiny company that could not conceivably have received such a loan (hint: zero revenue)."

"Kratos management is quick to talk big revenue figures as market opportunities for projects that are speculative in nature, with a low probability of receiving permanent funding."

"This means CSTE had to make up more than 20 percentage points of revenue in savings from marketing or staff cuts just to make up the proportional COGS difference between the two."

"While it appeared IQ was winding down its advertising revenue inflation in 2017 in preparation for its IPO, IQ's ad revenue inflation nearly tripled to RMB 1.537 billion in 2018."

"DSP has missed its expectations for New Product Revenue each of the past three years and New Product Revenue has barely grown over that period despite significant R&D investments"

"We reported record revenue for both the quarter and the fiscal year, as well as a gross margin of more than 40% for the quarter and 39% for the year — Jim Thorburn, CFO of Twist."

"Revenue is much harder to manage vs. “Adjusted” EPS. We see that Avery has started to consistently miss revenue expectations while regularly beating “Adjusted” EPS expectations."

"Approximately 35% of total India revenue is reimbursements from carriers for energy costs, this has been grossed up in the AMT 10-Ks. AMT's local accounts only show net revenue."

"We believe unbilled receivables rising reflect a worsening of the quality of business that TASK is undertaking, and that it may be booking revenue ahead of certainty of payment."

"Intuit consensus estimates call for 12% revenue growth over the next two fiscal years, suggesting even the sell-side believes the boom from services adoption has run its course."

"PERI must decide if its search and advertising revenue is presented on a gross or a net basis. Presenting revenues on a gross basis would increase the size of reported revenues."

"Based on interviews with its related-party “customers,” we believe that at least half of Ginkgo’s reported revenue is phantom – that is, non-cash and pure accounting hocus-pocus"

"We see it as no coincidence that gross margin, operating margin and net margin all peaked in Q3 2018, the same quarter that Brazil peaked as a percentage of SGH’s total revenue."