Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Does Hess think that washes clean John Mullin's relationship with the Hess family? Such closeness ought to be inappropriate for board membership, let alone lead directorship..."

"Ancora believes these calculations directly confirm the crux of our thesis that management and the Board have and continue to pursue revenue growth over profitability and ROIC."

"Collectively, the group showed a net cash outflow of RMB 12.0 million. Yet, YY would have recorded RMB 17.1 million in revenues from gifts given to Ruitiantian, as shown below."

"GGP owns 35% of Aliansce, a Brazilian mall developer, which went public in January. Pershing Square is the second largest owner with roughly 14% of the total shares outstanding"

"PF GGP will have the added benefit of near-term growth as it refocuses on its operations post-emergence and corrects for the under-performance that resulted from its bankruptcy"

"As stated in the 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation, "Brief episodes of subclinical AF are at low risk of clinical events.""

"In part because of the involvement of ANTA proxies Lin Sankuan and Su Weiqing, we believe Li Yuxiong is in substance another manager from ANTA, and is not an independent party."

"Warning: Oatly's own rapeseed supplier sheds light on multiple factors elevating prices, but doesn't articulate a clear reason as to why they should come down in the near term."

"Spruce Point finds Oatly's research and development spending as a percentage of sales is materially lower than its high growth, high multiple plant-based food peer Beyond Meat."

"Instead of honoring the wishes of shareholders and calling the Special Meeting, the Board decided it knew best and chose to completely ignore the will of Darden's shareholders."

"Pershing believes that McDonald's, pro forma for the McOpCo 20% IPO, would have a 2006E Free Cash Flow yield of 4.3 % - 4.7% at stock price in the range of $46 - $50 per share."

"Investors should strongly evaluate O’s Board of Directors, and in particular, its audit committee members tasked with overseeing management’s accounting and financial policies."

"Genscript is also a money-losing dumpster fire, so the announcement doesn’t validate Twist’s space, but merely highlights that Twist is not even the tallest midget in the room."

"Adjusting for the combined effects of all of these dynamics, it becomes clear that GY is trading at 8.2x the recurring cash earnings power of its aerospace and defense business"

"If you grow your Industrial EPS...4% a year over the next couple of years, that gets you to $2.00 [EPS in 2018]...Now I'm going to run the company to a higher number than that."

"Management frequently points to Frigo Cheese developments, but we observe that Saputo has changed the tone and strength of its language around the Frigo cheese brand over time."

"We note that Sequa has previously had a supply arrangement with Calgon Carbon, a Company where GCP's current CEO, Randy Dearth, has previously served as a Board member and CEO."

"ELF’s share price commands a premium to peers as revenue growth has recently been more than double the industry average and it has avoided slower growing international markets."

"Any continued underperformance of AOL advertising sales is particularly of concern, as the mainstay of AOL's new strategy is advertising from its content sites on the Internet."

"As audiences continue to migrate from traditional networks to cable networks, advertisers will place more emphasis on cable network advertising to reach their desired audience."

"Competitors such as Starz! compare unfavorably to HBO due to their lack of compelling original programming, smaller and less established subscriber base and weak pricing power."

"Spruce Point was shocked to learn that Chief Accounting Officer Katz has been selling stock in an oblique manner through filing FORM 144s that do not appear on the SEC website."

"Upwork is now at a crossroads. The Board needs to rapidly make important changes to give Upwork a chance at succeeding – or the platform risks becoming increasingly irrelevant."

"Allowing Mr. Lashier to consolidate control over the Company's governance has hindered our ability to work constructively with Phillips 66 to improve the Company's performance."

"BIO gives clear guidance that it only capitalizes costs up to implementation, whereas Mettler has not, and continues to aggressively capitalize costs into software within PP&E."

"Commentary from the Q3'17 earnings conference call in Nov 2017 about the acquisition of Biotix illustrates it produced $35m and was growing 10%-12% according to the former CFO."

"Current pay limits lead to high leadership turnover, with Fannie averaging a new CEO every three years and Freddie every two years since conservatorship began in September 2008"

"Spruce Point believes that Hill-Rom's underlying sales growth has been effectively flat at best, versus management's reported "core growth" of 2%-6% through the past two years."

"INSTEAD, management proposed what appears to be a hurried, reactive attempt, in the face of shareholder pressure, to cast off the weight of the struggling Red Lobster business."

"Therefore, we conclude that IQ simply made up this non-cash contribution to add RMB 757.75 million of fraudulent deferred revenue which management uses to inflate its revenues."

"Sell-side analysts have eaten up INGN management’s COPD narrative along with the other fairytales, penning bullish reports touting the “Robust, Long-Tailed Sales Growth Story”."

"Notice carefully that BR made a large and material change to its description of “critical communications” handled annually. The number dropped from “6 billion” to “>2 billion”."

"Technology is nothing special; just an expensive mash-up of cheap, lab tools like flow cytometers and fluidics; dismissed it as a glorified cytometer, which sell for $50-$500K."

"Expert is now at a mid-tier CDMO; would never use the BLI instrument after his Novartis experience; doing so would put the CDMO's reputation and the work of its clients at risk"

"Lasertec’s largest customers – notably TSMC, Intel, and Samsung, which are 77% of its revenue – are struggling, exasperated, and/or furious with its EUV mask inspection system."

"When our investigators spoke to teachers present during the period of purported disposal, none thought that the GZ 1-1 or the “Aizhikang” business was acquired by Changing Edu."

"After more than eleven months of a Strategic Review process, we believe management and the Board must drive the process to conclusion and commit to a separation of Classifieds."

"Willis Lease Finance (WLFC US) states explicitly the way residual value is calculated, giving quantitative data instead of a vague “estimated fair value of life limited parts.”"

"our work has corroborated the existence of deferred tax assets (in addition to the inherited carry forward) which should enable ADT to preserve a low cash tax rate for 6+ years"

"Atrasentan’s direct effect on rates of advancement to end-stage kidney disease, as the below table taken from the SONAR analysis shows, does not reach statistical significance."

"The fertility technology that once constituted part of PGNY was divested in early 2018, and the vast majority of senior management came from internet advertising company WebMD."

"The three most recent beats (and six times in PGNY's public history) relied on revenue recognized from increased unbilled A/R in order to surpass Wall Street revenue estimates."

"When a Company publishes a separate presentation to explain what exactly is going on with cash flow from operations, it is likely in response to investor concerns or confusion."

"On April 1, 2024, Autodesk announced the Audit Committee of the Board was conducting an investigation into the Company’s free cash flow and non-GAAP operating margin practices."

"Compared to their generic peers such as Equate, CVS and Walgreens, we believe PBH’s products have no competitive advantage, limited barriers to entry and are at a disadvantage."

"We believe PBH's executive compensation plan does not align management's interests with the Company's top priorities of 1) long-term 2-3% organic growth and 2) cash generation."

"Cintas needs to conduct a fully independent, and audited review of its Fire Protection Services workforce to make sure it is conducting its business in compliance with the law."

"Less than two months before the scil transaction was announced, Heska told investors that it was targeting 2022 gross margins of 49.5%. The current plan is 42% at the midpoint."

"We believe that Nevro’s business hinges on kickbacks to high-volume implanters, who otherwise would have stopped using its HF10 technology due to lack of efficacy and explants."

"CLEAR's bottleneck at the airports exist because of the TSA directives but also due in part from non-paying frequent flyers and low paying Amex members clogging up CLEAR lanes."

"Without validation of ROVI’s strategy and strengthened oversight by new and independent directors, shareholders risk being set up for yet another costly round of disappointment"

"With these facts in mind, we respectfully ask BP's collective Board of Directors to: Answer, without further delay, the thirty-six questions which were refused at the 2024 AGM."

"That seems to us like a harsh repudiation of Red Cat and its management team, and a vote of no-confidence in the ability of the company to achieve what management says it will."

"Current pay limits lead to high leadership turnover, with Fannie averaging a new CEO every three years and Freddie every two years since conservatorship began in September 2008"

"Phillips' 2024 refining EBITDA per barrel has trailed best-in-class peer Valero by $3.75 per barrel, widening to a $4.75 per barrel shortfall in the most recent fourth quarter."

"Heim's executive background in midstream operations and experience in the energy industry and serving on public boards would make him a valuable addition to the Phillips Board."

"In collaboration with other board members, Trian’s nominees will seek to craft a compensation program that better aligns management compensation with stockholder value creation"

"Despite the same claims being made to try to prevent shareholder-driven change, CP's new board and management team improved performance and achieved a superior operating ratio."

"However, the core of his qualification for the Board is that, at his most fundamental, Mr. Kasich is a force for organizational change to structurally correct underperformance."

"In its 12 month pilot study, LivaNova’s patients saw a mean reduction in AHI of 53% after 12 months and a mean ODI reduction of around 50% - almost exactly the same as Inspire."