Callouts & quotes from 619+ activist slides

"Despite this clear trajectory towards exclusive brands, it is noteworthy that John Grijalva, the current representative for three of BOOT's nonexclusive brands, is navigating against the tide. His relationships have not diminished; instead, they have increased."

"Insiders continue to be net sellers of Mercury shares despite having been given the chance to prove Spruce Point wrong: rather than demonstrate confidence in the business by committing more personal capital at depressed prices, they have continued to sell out."

"Intuit is one of the most US-centric software companies. We believe Intuit management often talks up the 50% international customer base of Mailchimp to suggest that it will catalyze international success despite years of struggles and little product synergy."

"Phillips 66 has been pursuing a strategy for many years that emphasizes and grows midstream assets alongside its refining business, despite evidence that this structure isn’t delivering value for shareholders relative to the company’s more streamlined peers."

"Phillips 66 has been pursuing a strategy for many years that emphasizes and grows midstream assets alongside its refining business, despite evidence that this structure isn’t delivering value for shareholders relative to the company’s more streamlined peers."

"Despite owning 65% and controlling the majority of DTA's operating capacity, AMR claims it doesn't control the asset because "two reps must be present for business to be conducted and unanimous approval of both parities is needed for decisions to be taken"."

"Despite its 100-year head start in consumer entertainment, iconic IP, superior scale and diversification, Disney has underperformed and disappointed its investors by nearly every objective measure of business and stock price performance over the past decade"

"Despite its 100-year head start in consumer entertainment, iconic IP, superior scale and diversification, Disney has underperformed and disappointed its investors by nearly every objective measure of business and stock price performance over the past decade"

"Scil generated 31% gross margins in 2018 and 2019, indicative of the Company's distribution business model. Of note, the Company was barely profitable on an operating basis despite scil management receiving Wilson's praise for their operational excellence."

"This is despite management alluding to a potential buyer on the Q1 2023 earnings call, with CEO Albright claiming that they may “have a buyer group interested” in response to an analyst’s question on CTO’s exposure to Fidelity, General Dynamics, and Ford."

"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 his outspoken condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling it "barbaric," even Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized Volozh's extraordinary capabilities, stating that he was a "talented man" entitled to his opinion — Vladimir Putin"

"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."

"Data from Accountability India shows that despite being amongst the highest spending states in India, at current FX rates, the 60k rupees per student that Himachal Pradesh spent in 2017-2018 only amounts to roughly US$ $720, a fraction of U.S. spending."

"Despite little discussion of competition in China from Ballard, Spruce Point believes that the “Sinohytec chain” is best positioned to capture the China fuel cell opportunity given relationships with influential research universities and manufacturers."

"As we've already shown: 1) MPWR's Chinese tax filings do not account for ~$262m of revenue, and 2) MPWR's inventory turnover metrics are ballooning and a significant industry outlier despite stable and steady gross margin growth that management touts."

"Allied recorded its $20 million debt investment in Startec Global Communications at cost throughout 2001 and even increased its investment in the company in June 2001 by an additional $15 million despite significant evidence that Startec was failing."

"Monster is trading in-line with its 5-year EV / NTM EBITDA multiple despite our belief that its business has fundamentally deteriorated over this time. As a result, we believe it should be trading at a discount to its long-term average of 23x EBITDA."

"We have presented our belief, supported by interviews with former executives, that EBITDA in not an appropriate metric to analyze Sunnova. Despite this, the sell-side chooses to focus on EBITDA to evaluate NOVA's financial performance and valuation."

"Despite claims of efficient utilization of assets benefiting gross margins, ROAD's gross margins have contracted since Pre-COVID-19 and that even includes the benefit of lower margin contracts rolling off and higher inflationary projects rolling on."

"Not only has Crown Castle's AFFO per share grown more slowly than that of peers, but its AFFO also includes less of its total capex. In other words, Crown Castle is growing cash flow per share slower than its peers despite spending far more capital"

"“Despite’s Crown’s massive investment in fiber and small cells, which we acknowledge are less attractive relative to towers, we view the company’s underlying domestic macro business as under-appreciated relative to peers.” — JPMorgan, November 2019"

"We are surprised that the sell side seems to think that gross margin in the product segment could expand through the coming years despite the strong relative growth of sales of distributed product vs. manufactured product, as cited by management."

"Target’s board decided not to transfer credit risk in a credit card transaction, despite Pershing Square’s repeated requests. In 2008, Target’s credit card operating profits fell 65% predominantly due to increased credit risk and bad debt expense"

"Our criticism of FND's deficient disclosures extend to its Board relationships and related party dealings. For example, despite Peter Starrett serving on both the Boards of Floor & Decor and Boot Barn, FND fails to disclose that it sells to BOOT."

"Despite over three years of effort and billions spent on acquisitions, the management team that was hired to turn around the Core Business has failed to produce acceptable results, in turn, causing massive declines in profitability and cash flow."

"Despite all of our findings that indicate Stryker's business is under increasing financial stress from underlying fundamental challenges and more expensive and levered acquisitions, Stryker's management took home a record in compensation in 2021."

"In addition to virtual learning tools, many district leaders also used temporary ESSER funds to expand permanent full-time positions. The net result is that many states are at all-time high staffing levels despite flat to declining enrollments."

"Phillips 66’s (NYSE: PSX) CEOs reaped an eye-popping $140M from 2020-2024—despite ongoing stock and operating underperformance and missed cost targets. Why are shareholders footing the bill for big CEO paydays in the face of lackluster returns?"

"There is tangible evidence that warm weather is affecting WTRG, ultimately reducing the need for natural gas consumption. The CEO recently punted on discussing the impact to their outlook despite 20% warmer weather than normal. Wonder why....?"

"The analyst community is overly bullish on Bunge and largely buys into management's new aspirational EPS target for 2030 despite its pervious guidance failures and underlying financial performance problems with Viterra and Bunge's operations."

"Despite claiming that the TOP|SPG is Norfolk Southern’s “modern version of PSR,” resilience railroading and PSR are inherently conflicted – selectively implementing certain elements of each strategy is likely to result in a network collapse."

"Ambry Genetics was acquired at a notable discount relative to other advanced genetic and molecular diagnostic testing companies, despite the entire peer group, including Ambry, showing double-digit sales growth and EBITDA margins above 10%."

"The Board has failed to recognize and address the growing risk of 'greenwashing', despite an inconsistent and contradictory approach to ESG investing: in the 10K, BlackRock neglects to identify 'greenwashing' as a standalone source of risk"

"The Board has failed to recognize and address the growing risk of 'greenwashing', despite an inconsistent and contradictory approach to ESG investing: in the 10K, BlackRock neglects to identify 'greenwashing' as a standalone source of risk"

"Shares of DHI and INVH appear to be compelling opportunities today, each down more than 20% from their highs earlier this year despite encouraging real-time data points and secular demand drivers strengthened as a result of the pandemic."

"Despite an economic recession in 2001-2003, significant dips in McDonald’s system wide same-store sales growth and declines in McDonald’s stock prices, the Real Estate and Franchise business has grown every year over the last five years."

"While most companies have been able to raise prices to offset inflationary forces, Enfusion has indicated that price changes did not impact its results. This outcome is despite the former CFO claiming that the Company had pricing power."

"Despite buying 5 BLI machines, the feedback is revealing – wouldn't personally buy the machine; "would not feel comfortable"; better ways to spend $2MM; not suited for commercial discovery where you have to "actually deliver" a drug."

"Under new leadership, Marathon was able to successfully divest Speedway at an attractive valuation with limited impact to operations, despite the Board’s “unanimous conclusion” that Speedway should remain integrated within Marathon."

"Under new leadership, Marathon was able to successfully divest Speedway at an attractive valuation with limited impact to operations, despite the Board's "unanimous conclusion" that Speedway should remain integrated within Marathon."

"Sunnova's business model aligns itself closer to specialty finance / leasing peers than solar businesses. Despite its undifferentiated offerings and lagging financial metrics, Sunnova trades at a premium to peers across all metrics."

"Under new leadership, Marathon was able to successfully divest Speedway at an attractive valuation with limited impact to operations, despite the Board’s “unanimous conclusion” that Speedway should remain integrated within Marathon."

"Spruce Point believes that Stryker's inability to raise prices to offset inflation speaks volumes about the quality of its business vs. peers. Most are sticking to margin improvements despite inflationary and supply chain headwinds."

"Under new leadership, Marathon was able to successfully divest Speedway at an attractive valuation with limited impact to operations, despite the Board’s “unanimous conclusion” that Speedway should remain integrated within Marathon."

"Under new leadership, Marathon was able to successfully divest Speedway at an attractive valuation with limited impact to operations, despite the Board’s “unanimous conclusion” that Speedway should remain integrated within Marathon."

"Despite the CEO offering expectations of “winning” in Europe at the beginning of the year, we find that profits were down materially. Even worse, we find that Amcor’s cash pool swung from a surplus of €62.7m to a deficit of -€34.4m."

"“Despite the portfolio upgrading effort, a valuation gain has been elusive” — Goldman Sachs. “the market is currently discounting the potential for Huntsman to achieve these goals.” — Starboard Value (commentary on Huntsman slide)."

"Had electricity been harnessed during the medieval age, one might characterize stimulators as medieval in their underlying simplicity, crudeness, and adverse effects, despite the field favoring fancier terms like neuromodulation."

"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)."

"Despite promises of transformational change, improved organizational design, and large headline cost savings meant to fuel reinvestment and earnings growth, P&G has generally lowered the bar for performance over the past decade"

"Elliott’s Geoff Sorbello explains why Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) has been able to maintain its staggered board—despite 99% of voting shareholders preferring to abandon the structure, which is used by only 10% of S&P 500 companies."

"We note that despite the increase in tenancy, the NOI situation may not have improved dramatically as during the Q1 and Q2 2023 updates the CLO notes there are rent free periods for recently executed deals in addition to Ti's."

"Edgewater's Board has overseen a significant lack of revenue growth, despite making numerous acquisitions, implying the Company's organic revenue growth is poor or acquired companies perform poorly post-acquisition, or both"

"Based on Beijing Mushang Culture's revenues, we estimate that talent agencies likely represented a little less than half of Live Video in 2017, despite management statements about agents being insignificant to the business."

"Despite the ease of discovering that CCME did not have agreements with either of these operators, CTR’s research concluded that both operators are in CCME’s network, and represented 2,127 buses with 5,114 CCME LCD screens."

"Dr. Kleinfeld’s compensation does not appear linked to shareholder returns and in 2015, much of the current board saw fit to gross up Dr. Kleinfeld’s compensation by 34% despite the fact that company shares declined by 37%"

"Spruce Point observes a troubling trend of what appears to be less Board engagement through fewer meetings. Despite 2023 being a challenging year, the Board met just five times, which was a large decrease from prior years."

"Despite having the largest revenue base in media, arguably the best IP, iconic studios, and multiple distribution channels, Disney's Media business ("Entertainment" and "Sports") significantly under-earns its media peers."

"Despite having the largest revenue base in media, arguably the best IP, iconic studios, and multiple distribution channels, Disney’s Media business (“Entertainment” and “Sports”) significantly under-earns its media peers."