Callouts & quotes from 582+ activist slides

"Initially submitted as an advisory proposal to solicit shareholder feedback, but rejected by Keisei, Palliser's binding proposal to reduce the OLC stake below 15% offered shareholders a voice on capital allocation, whilst preserving management flexibility"

"When individual markets experience structural deterioration, Herbalife will often point to temporary factors to explain the decline. Once a market inevitably falls below a certain sales threshold, Herbalife eliminates all disclosure regarding the market."

"Miraculously, there are still sell-side analysts recommending to buy Zillow’s stock despite the Company eliminating its 2025 revenue target, lowering 2024 revenue guidance and consensus estimates for Adj. EBITDA being way below management’s 2025E target."

"Despite Dell's and its investment bankers' assumption that DVMT would trade within 5-10% of VMW, since its first trading day, DVMT has traded on average 35% below VMW due to an atrocious governance structure put in place by Michael Dell and Silver Lake."

"Even with evidence that Microsoft revenue is falling below plan, Perion retracted Yandex as a search partner, made search its #1 risk factor, and experienced a sharp decline in revenue per day per search, sell-side consensus estimates are still rising."

"We value BR's ICS and GTO business at 1x – 2x and 2.5x – 3.0x 2022E sales, respectively, to reflect its below industry margins, and other challenges we've identified. As a result, our price target is $37.35 – $52.30, implying 65% – 75% downside risk."

"The signatures below differ from those above, as do the accountants' personal seals. The audit firm's seal below may or may not be forged – if it is not forged, it would imply that DGW had some cooperation from the audit firm in forging the report."

"We went and made an account on Data Vault—as anyone can easily do. We discovered that the latest piece of “data” for sale on the “exchange” was a piece of historical weather data that a DVLT employee had posted for sale as a “sample” as seen below."

"S&P recently published estimates that also come in significantly below MPLN’s 2021 guidance, and yet management has not withdrawn this guidance. The rating agency’s release dated October 20, 2020 shows a much dimmer view of MPLN’s sales and EBITDA."

"Stop lowering the bar with targets such as negative free cash flow and a return on invested capital well below the Company’s estimated cost of capital – unconscionable targets that the Compensation Committee has approved the last two fiscal years"

"Stop lowering the bar with targets such as negative free cash flow and a return on invested capital well below the Company's estimated cost of capital - unconscionable targets that the Compensation Committee has approved the last two fiscal years"

"With potential long-term dividend per share growth in excess of 10%, comparable dividend paying companies across a range of industries suggest CCI should trade below a 4.0% yield, implying at least 27% - 43% upside at a payout ratio of 80% - 90%"

"Spruce Point is hard-pressed to find much differentiation in the scrubs products being offered by FIGS and its competitors. Below is a sample of just a few select competitors. In fact, almost everyone is offering 10-20% off first orders."

"This stark and recent case study brings up several questions: How can a $2bn revenue segment of ADP have margins which are >80% below optimal levels? What does this say about ADP's corporate operating efficiency, culture, and governance?"

"AMC's EBITDAR to Rent is well below O's corporate average of 2.7x and has weakened significantly in the most recent YTD period. The equity markets have already identified the theater level risk: AMC's stock is down ~64% from January 2017"

"As a result of the Company’s subpar performance, Autodesk shareholders have suffered. As shown below, Autodesk’s share price has meaningfully underperformed its peers, the software market, and the broader market over the last five years."

"In 2019 Vireo has come short of its dispensary rollout plan and gross margins have been significantly below expectations (16% in Q3/2019 vs 35% consensus and down 19% sequentially) Buildout in a number of locations have been put on hold."

"Although Tessera’s IP segment is currently profitable, its financial performance has deteriorated substantially over the past few years and its profit margins are far below the margins of other intellectual property licensing companies."

"For illustrative purposes, Spruce Point has conducted an NPV analysis of the UBS technology project. Using conservative assumptions, we estimate a project Present Value of $209 million, significantly below the $1.0+ billion+ investment."

"Disney fails to set challenging financial performance targets (70% of annual bonus), including negative free cash flow targets in FY 2021 & 2022 and targets well below consensus estimates when comp plans for the year are made ('20-'23)"

"Disney fails to set challenging financial performance targets (70% of annual bonus), including negative free cash flow targets in FY 2021 & 2022 and targets well below consensus estimates when comp plans for the year are made ('20-'23)"

"NSA does not recommend the usage of quantum key distribution and quantum cryptography for securing the transmission of data in National Security Systems (NSS) unless the limitations below are overcome. — National Security Agency (NSA)"

"O Realty looks priced for perfection. O trades at the highest multiple within their retail triple net lease peers. As highlighted below, when the growth profile of a REIT begins to decline, the AFFO multiple compresses significantly."

"O Realty looks priced for perfection. O trades at the highest multiple within their retail triple net lease peers. As highlighted below, when the growth profile of a REIT begins to decline, the AFFO multiple compresses significantly."

"Based on the assumptions below, the Pro Forma combined Company would have $473mm of '08E EBITDA without any cost savings. Assuming cost savings, the Pro Forma combined Company would have $633mm of EBITDA and is trading at 6.3x EBITDA"

"Importantly, we note that, until recently, AT&T was a strategic investor in Amdocs. However, AT&T's position in DOX equity fell below 5% in 2009, and there is no indication that it maintains a material position in the stock today."

"Our estimates are significantly below the Street in 2022. We also eliminate all the "noise" of Stryker's adjustments, which we believe are covering-up financial strains and allowing results to rapidly diverge from GAAP financials."

"Kao has been struggling to maintain a high ROE. In fact, it has been in decline since 2017, and has recently accelerated below 5%. Kao’s own ‘restructuring’ plans are a short-term fix that will not solve underlying growth issues."

"Avery's NTM valuation relative to its closest materials and specialty chemical adhesive peers cannot be justified by Avery having higher free cash flow, or faster sales growth potential. It's dividend yield is also below market."

"The point of a strategic process is not to sell the Company below its intrinsic value, but to explore whether shareholders could monetize their shares at or above intrinsic value today without having to take any execution risks."

"Based on the data below, since the deal was first announced on November 7, 2022, we suspect that Luxor and its affiliates, may have been, or may be currently short IAA to benefit from IAA's shares declining upon a failed merger."

"Aldi drives superior retention of its customers. Below, an Earnest Research cohort analysis of new Weis and Aldi shoppers in July 2017 shows 15.9% of Aldi customers continued to shop at Aldi after 12 months versus 10.7% at Weis."

"Our modeling reveals that the average annual reagent revenues per fully installed system is below $40,000 and is trailing down, despite management claiming it to be somewhere around $55,000 (average of $45,000 to $65,000 range)."

"We believe that DOX should not trade at a material premium to midcap technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) peers as a result of its opaque and complex structure, below avg growth, accounting and governance concerns."

"Recall on the previous slide, G&K revenue guidance was suppressed ~$165-$195 below G&K projections. Is it a coincidence that Cintas actual results came in above the initial range by an amount close to the reduced G&K revenue?"

"We expect management will wrack its brain to find another excuse about why it is hiring engineers to run its internal bot network. We thought we would help. Management or IR, please feel free to cut and paste the reply below."

"As shown in the chart below, it is common to see blockbuster drugs representing approximately 15-30% of total company revenue at LOE, but REVLIMID at 63% of revenue at LOE is essentially unheard of and poses tremendous risk."

"Tempus investors are led to believe that growth of data within its cloud environment is a positive indicator about the growth and expansion of its business. The charts below are a cornerstone of the Company's Annual Report."

"“With Gen9, if we were at 15 cents a base, they might come in at like 10. Before Twist came out, it wasn’t going below 10. They’ve always been driving towards 5 cents.” — Executive previously at Gen9, a key Twist competitor"

"From 2019 to 2021, HASI booked $238.6 million in profit from EMIs, largely due to ITC-related HLBV income. However, HASI's pro rata share of project losses during this time was approximately ($449 million), as shown below."

"The year-over-year comparisons for the four starts for fiscal year 2018 (July '17, Oct '17, Jan '18 and Apr '18) are all below the prior year comparisons and are getting worse. MBA@UNC enrollment is now in a steady decline"

"With cash levels well below what BUR had previously characterized as a “strong” cash position, poor cash realizations, and escalating funding obligations, it is no coincidence that BUR aims to raise even more debt in 2020."

"However, the BuiltWith historical data shows customer growth declining and turning negative over the past year plus, with that trend particularly pronounced among the top 1 million websites based on traffic (right below)."

"BP, operating through its subsidiary Lightsource BP... unlawfully obtained authorization from the County Durham Council to build a solar farm at Burnhope by claiming it was below 50 MW, when it was actually a 76 MW plant."

"Perhaps unsurprisingly the turnaround in the derivative balance coincided with the first time that Olam recognized the management-sensitive Level 3 derivatives by re-categorizing Level 2 derivatives as per the note below."

"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."

"Vivint 3 was a significant EMI for HASI in 2021, meaning HASI recorded at least $20 million of income from Vivint 3. However, Vivint 3 allocated zero profit to HASI, as shown below in the HA Galileo LLC member's equity."

"According to an industry-leading database provider, FTAI sold ~14 aircraft in 2024. Flight tracking databases indicate, and our Consultant confirmed that all the below Mavi Gok transactions are Perpetual Power programs."

"Finally, and most importantly, this all has a detrimental effect on SGH's balance sheet. As you can see in the chart below, the cash burn eats into the Company's balance sheet and causes a big problem by fiscal Q4 2020."

"From analysis conducted under AMR’s own “independent” and “Qualified Expert” Marshall Miller & Associates, we see that 2021 production was 15.613 million tons, well below the 16.2 – 16.3 million tons claimed elsewhere."

"Below the Neocloud giants is a bewildering number (111+ and counting) of Emerging Neoclouds, Sovereign Neoclouds, as well as brokers and aggregators – all vying for the same target customer with similar infrastructure."

"Recent buyers bucket Avery as a "value" investment, despite the fact we illustrate it trades at the richest multiple in its sector (with below average margins and sales growth) and at a premium to broker fair value."

"50% of equity compensation is linked to three-year ROIC goals of which FY 2022 and FY 2023 had targets for 100% payout set well below Disney's cost of capital and less than half of Disney's reported ROIC 5 years ago"

"50% of equity compensation is linked to three-year ROIC goals of which FY 2022 and FY 2023 had targets for 100% payout set well below Disney's cost of capital and less than half of Disney's reported ROIC 5 years ago"

"If one adjusts Carvana's ~$2,900 non-GAAP retail GPU reported in 2H23 to account for these definitional differences, we estimate the comparable metric would be ~$2,300, remarkably similar to CarMax, as shown below."

"Excluding revenue from in-year acquisitions, Limbach has fallen short of the midpoint of its initial annual revenue guidance in three of the past four years, and below the low-end of guidance in two of those years."

"Genius currently trades at a premium to peers on a sales and EBITDA multiple basis while generating significantly lower margins than peers and below average projected revenue growth to online gaming and B2B peers."

"As CEO, Lance Fritz has only been earning ~83% of a 200% potential annual incentive bonus (only one year above 100%). This is a low earn rate and significantly below the best-in-class railroad CEO average of ~155%"

"With Q3 2020 run rate revenues at Security Detection & Automation (SD&A) running 41% below plan, how are management’s claims credible that they are “ahead of milestones” and things are “going really, really well”?"

"Review data for subscribed businesses on Trustpilot follow in many cases an _I shape, meaning that over 80% of reviews are 5-stars and there is no meaningful pattern of reviews sorting below the 5-star threshold."