Callouts & quotes from 597+ activist slides

""So we’ve got Alex [Fala] who is our FO. He’s been with me for just on a year now and he’s stepping into the role as acting CEO to free myself up to go out and find that global CE that we’re looking for; who knows how to grow a business from that $20 million of revenue to over $100 million of revenue, and in quick order." — Vaughan Rowsell, Exit Interview: Vaughan Rowsell steps down as CEO of Vend, Idealog, 2016"

"We can calculate Terminal Value in two ways. First, we can calculate Terminal Value using the Perpetuity Growth Method. This method assumes that the company keeps operating and generates cash flow forever into the future. Second, we can calculate Terminal Value using the Terminal Multiple Method. This method assumes we sell the company to an acquirer at the end of our forecast period. — The Core Technicals Guide"

"The difference between Arconic and PCC has always been one of culture. PCC is relentless at operating the plants effectively and incentivizing its boots on the ground to drive efficiency. PCC is flat, tough, and hungry. Arconic (Alcoa EPS) has been plagued by bureaucracy and a fundamental disregard for the plant workers. That has to change not only for the Company to succeed, but for the Company to survive."

"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"

"A former BLI scientist provided extensive color on the Beacon’s instability and reliability issues: “not robust enough to ensure good results”; troubleshooting was difficult; instrument requires an overwhelming amount of training, support, and documentation and customer still couldn’t get it to work; product has too many steps to get it to run properly, requiring handholding by members of BLI’s R&D staff."

"The fiscal 2019 Cintas EPS used in the incentive plan calculations was $7.60. This EPS figure differs from the Company's reported diluted EPS from continuing operations because it takes into consideration various one-time, extraordinary financial impacts that occurred during the fiscal year, which consisted of acquisition-related integration expenses and a gain on the sale of an equity method investment."

""Reps will hammer patients with questions... According to my patients that have a Nevro trial, they'll get on average of ten calls over the course of two days." — KOL; "Nevro was strict on patient selection early on then they started recommending their device for everything. They overshot... There's pressure on them. They have to generate X number of patients. The industry is not well regulated." — KOL"

"The video itself shows a group of prepubescent girls in fashionable bikinis in a luxury spa. While the 14-seconds clip does not reveal any criminal activity and the connection to Kappy seems mostly inferred from the timing of publication, we find it noteworthy that, as Daniel points out, the location of the scene seems to be identical with Epstein’s masseuse training location at Rixos Antalya, Turkey."

"If you speak to reps from other stim companies, they’ll tell you that Senza had all of that capability in there and just never used it. I met with [a key Nevro engineer] a few weeks ago to have him explain to me what’s in the guts of the Omnia and he admitted to me that a lot of its capabilities were there in the previous device but they never marketed it. — KOL and former high volume Nevro implanter"

"“Most doctors that do stimulators only implant six a year. They don't do that many, so they're nervous. They're insecure about it. And the reps are knowledgeable and very aggressive They can run the show. So when you're doing half a dozen a year and they're not all with Nevro and you've had a couple of bad outcomes, the reps blame you, and the doctor accepts it.” — High volume implanter and KOL"

"Pepsi: China MediaExpress promotes our products to tier 2 cities and towns by its large scale inter-city bus network, which is highly helpful to our sales expansion. CMCC: China MediaExpress' network penetrates large target audience precisely. It fits our products very well. Lenovo: ChinaMediaExpress' media cost is much lower than traditional media, which is the main reason that we chose CCME"

"“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...So if you get 5% organic growth, if we're able to do the job with margins, if we execute the way we think we can execute...we're going to be substantially above 4% annual growth” — Jeff Immelt EPG Conference 5/20/15"

"Another ex-manufacturing employee stated that Twist’s workflow is just “standard molecular biology” steps, and that the chip in fact creates time-consuming bottlenecks such as the need for amplification, as the chip can only product negligible amounts of DNA material, which has to then be scaled 1000x with lab personnel performing a dizzying array of repetitive manuals tasks over 16 hours."

"“there’s always pressure...they put reps in a very awkward position...you want to make money, and not that I would do it, but like the whole cataplexy thing, for instance....” “I’m glad to be out of pharma now, that’s all I could say...the way that they compensate, you have to be a very ethical person....” — Ex-Harmony territory manager for a large region in the southeast across two states"

"I was stunned at how many cataplexy and narcolepsy patients that are legitimately out there. I was stunned. Stunned...I was just amazed...that every month that these different providers have...identified so many patients...we’re not talking about an autoimmune disease...it’s almost like narcolepsy’s a pandemic, not a rare disease. — Ex-field reimbursement manager working with Harmony"

"If you multiply the company's $1.1bn of unallocated corporate costs (which would be eliminated if the businesses were separated) by 11x (PepsiCo's multiple of enterprise value / 2014 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA)), it costs shareholders $12bn of value, or $8 per share, to have beverages and snacks together in a holding company structure."

"Our interactions with a significant quorum of other shareholders holding BHP shares worth tens of billions of US$ have revealed extremely broad and deep-rooted support for pro-active steps to be taken by management to achieve an optimal value outcome for BHP’s petroleum business following an in-depth, open and timely independent review, with full disclosure of the review results"

""The Company stated that based on its assessment of market conditions today, management anticipates local currency sales growth in 2015 will be in the range of 4% to 5%. This sales growth will result in Adjusted EPS in the range of $12.80 to $13.05. Using the midpoint of the 2014 Adjusted EPS range, this reflects an increase of 10% to 12%." — Q3'2014 Results, Nov 16, 2014"

"If we adjust Amdocs' EPS for its percentage-of-completion items and 75% of newly-capitalized software, on the assumption that 75% of the change in the unamortized software account represents capitalized costs – we observe that Amdocs EPS could have been overstated by up to 15% if the observed percentage-of-completion items represent improperly pulled-forward sales."

"BP Moves Chief Executive to Lesser Role in Spill Response — The New York Times; Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down in wake of safety issues — Axios; Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf Resigns Amid Scandal — NPR; 3M Names New CEO Amid PFAS Battles, Health Spinoff — The Wall Street Journal; CEO of Canada's Suncor Energy steps down after latest site fatality — Reuters"

"A former employee described concerns about WTRG's ability to meet its long-term goals leading up to the Peoples transaction. By looking carefully at the three-year period leading up to the transaction announcement in 2018, we find evidence that water revenue per customer was declining in two of three segments, while return on equity and EPS were also falling."

"“The question that we're getting a lot from investors is how to think about EPS growth and should EPS growth just follow and marry revenue growth, or is there opportunity and would management and the Board come off their 19% and 20% margin range or even perhaps get more aggressive on share repurchases or get more aggressive on M&A.” — Oppenheimer, Aug. 2016"

"As shown in our presentation, the upside from a more focused, streamlined PepsiCo is substantial – greater strategic focus, faster organic growth and meaningful profit-margin expansion would warrant a valuation in line with peers, the market and PepsiCo’s own history, representing a path to more than 50% stock-price increase from today’s depressed levels."

"It's just been very frustrating watching them not just take... like look at Wise and look at Remitly. They both started at the same place. 50% of Wise customers use more than one product and the velocity with which they put out new features, and they're just evolving very rapidly. Whereas Remitly keeps incrementally changing the things that are working."

"Once again, we urge Glencore’s Board of Directors to take all the necessary steps to (1) separate the thermal coal business, in order to accelerate Glencore’s repositioning as a leading pure player in metals, which are at the very core of the green economy transition, and (2) undertake a review of the strategic options for Glencore’s holding in Viterra."

"“You are absolutely right. You are right. There are two separate steps: gene synthesis, and once you synthesize the gene, Twist is not the cheapest one because their cost is much higher than, say, GenScript, for whom most of their products are generated in China, and their labor cost and everything is cheaper.” — Former Twist employee, director-level"

"We believe the Street has failed to critically assess the quality and performance of Mettler’s China business, and takes management’s Adj. EPS as given, without stress testing its accounting choices that are geared towards high capitalization of development costs, endless restructuring, and long periods of amortization in excess of industry norms."

"We believe the Street has failed to critically assess the quality and performance of Mettler’s China business, and takes management’s Adj. EPS as given, without stress testing its accounting choices that are geared towards high capitalization of development costs, endless restructuring, and long periods of amortization in excess of industry norms."

"Note that Nevro can only sell a permanent implant if the patient achieved 50% pain relief during the temporary trial period that lasts a few days, creating a powerful incentive for sales reps to bulldoze the patient into uttering the magic phrase, and creating a patient base in whom the device never worked and will eventually need to be explanted."

"“it’s not that big a deal” — Medical advisor to Harmony; “most patients I treat with narcolepsy are going to be a 2 or 3-agent regimen, and those are going to involve things that are at least Schedule 4.” — Medical advisor to Harmony; “the folks at Harmony market that stronger than probably it carries with clinicians” — Medical advisor to Harmony"

"PepsiCo is undoubtedly one of the world's great consumer franchises, whose leading scale and iconic brands have propelled it to over 100 years of exceptional performance. Yet, the Company's strategic and financial challenges have recently led to poor operational results, sharp stock-price underperformance and a meaningfully discounted valuation."

"I think semen stains could be basis for settlement of civil suit. Here is how. They indicate Sofitel employees involved in a prostitution ring. The accor Group would not want this coming out in trial. So suit has to be sealed. This means it would contribute money to settlement. End of the suit — Email from 'Ed' to Jeffrey Epstein, April 4, 2012."

"Conclusion: CSF histamine and tele-methylhistamine did not significantly differ between patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy and other etiologies of non-hypocretin-1 deficient central hypersomnias; these measurements, therefore, are not useful in assessing the etiology or severity of centrally mediated hypersomnia. — Yves Dauvilliers et al., 2012"

"“The biggest one was the cataplexy. If you coded the patient narcolepsy with cataplexy, that was your best go-to. The problem was the patient doesn't have cataplexy. So now the discontinuation or is diagnosing cataplexy because that's how you got it covered.” — Ex-Harmony territory manager for a large region in the southeast across two states"

"The plasma level average was 100.6±78.1 ng/ml (n=17). Elevated plasma levels (> 150 ng/ml) were observed in 5 patients, in some cases related to the experience of adverse events occurring a few hours after drug intake. — An inverse agonist of the histamine H3 receptor improves wakefulness in narcolepsy: Studies in orexin-/- mice and patients"

"We identified a material weakness in connection with our internal control over financial reporting. Although we are taking steps to remediate this material weakness, there is no assurance we will be successful in doing so in a timely manner, or at all, and we may identify other material weaknesses. — Super Group (SGHC) Limited Form 20-F"

"We estimate that, at best, EPS would have been flat or modestly down without Cintas’ crafty financial and accounting gamesmanship that involved lowering its tax rate, redirecting capital towards share repurchases despite repeatedly saying it was the lowest capital priority, and lowering amortization expense for G&K service contracts."

""We are not privy to PepsiCo's specific holdings or their investment strategy," Danimer Scientific said in the statement. "PepsiCo continues to be a strong strategic partner to Danimer Scientific through a fruitful business relationship and PepsiCo's seat on Danimer Scientific's board." — Danimer Scientific (via Seeking Alpha)"

"A lot of doctors think it's a waste of money...I think a lot of doctors are unfamiliar with it or not so excited about it. There's not so many subscribers of it, and I'm starting to think that some doctors also think that Xywav is it. He doesn't think it works at all. — Neurologist in New York with 70-80 narcolepsy patients."

"“your answer is totally garbled”: “your entire computation breaks down after a few steps”; “your chances of getting the right answer diminish very, very quickly” — Anonymous ex-employees and experts; “for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years”; “I just don’t see how it’s going to work.” — Leading expert and friend of the founders"

"If Val-gan can grow organically at a high single-digit rate as Valeant management projects, and management can invest the company’s free cash flow in new acquisition targets at historical rates of return, then we believe management can achieve its goal of 15%-20% annual EPS growth — Valeant Presentation April 22, 2014"

"Conclusion: CSF histamine and tele-methylhistamine did not significantly differ between patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy and other etiologies of non-hypocretin-1 deficient central hypersomnias; these measurements, therefore, are not useful in assessing the etiology or severity of centrally mediated hypersomnia."

"“While unfortunate, this disappointing trajectory has created a historic opportunity: With the right mindset and an appropriately ambitious turnaround plan, PepsiCo today represents a rare chance to revitalize a leading global enterprise and unlock significant shareholder value,” — Elliott Investment Management"

"We estimate gross profit per system will continue to drop as the solar investment tax credit steps down over the next 2 years. Lower margins and a reduced benefit for tax equity investors look to pressure an industry which already has tight margins and relies on tax equity to support their negative cash flows."

"Wall Street is fixated on Kratos's earnings "potential" of >100% growth in the next few years and give KTOS a commanding 20x and 70x EBITDA and P/E ratio. Be warned: this growth is off a low EPS base, on highly adjusted figures, and will surely disappoint given Kratos demonstrated ability to poorly execute."

"Spruce Point finds that, taken together, management’s consistent under-reserving has created $55M in paper earnings since FY15, accounting for 6% of cumulative EPS over the same timespan. Reversing each of these items to their FY15 levels would result in management wiping out over 16% of consensus FY19 EPS."

"Last month, Danimer Scientific's own Dr. Isao Noda traveled to Dubai and attended the Global Bottled Water Congress along with existing partners Maurizio Patarnello, CEO and Chairman of Nestlé Waters, and Simon Lowden, President and Chief Marketing Officer of Global Foods at PepsiCo (pictured). — Facebook"

"“there were other sales directors like that, too, absolutely...what would happen is their sales reps would push back, and they would just move that sales rep to somewhere else. I'm not kidding. I saw that happen twice because of what they were doing.” — Ex-field reimbursement manager working with Harmony"

"MAXR appears “cheap” on its inflated Non-IFRS metrics. However, Spruce Point’s forensic analysis unravels its aggressive accounting methods used to inflate EBITDA and EPS. Furthermore, when its debt is adjusted for standard credit agency adjustments, we find leverage to be in excess of its 5.8x covenant"

"But don't worry, the underwriters who have promoted GFL’s stock to investors have “reputational risk” committees which vet clients. In the case of Goldman Sachs, did that stop them from funding 1MDB and Jho Low? And Did J.P. Morgan’s risk committee weigh in on dealing with sex offender Jeffery Epstein?"

"“not a trivial limitation” — The Lancet. “the effect of pitolisant on cataplexy could not be assessed.” — The Lancet. “reported that trials...in drug-free patients...are ongoing. The results of these trials will clarify whether pitolisant is a novel alternative treatment for narcolepsy.” — The Lancet."

"From the end of 2013 to the end of 2016, Arconic invested $5 billion dollars in growth capital expenditures, research and development and acquisitions in EPS. For the $5 billion invested, Arconic generated an incremental $73 million of NOPAT for a Return on Incremental Invested Capital of 1.5%"

"“THAN JUST ONE PERSON MAKING 100 STEPS FORWARD. LET’S BE UNITED, WORK HARD, AND TURN THIS COMPANY AROUND!! WE DO NOT NEED ANY GENIUS. 100 PEOPLE TRYING TO MAKE ONE STEP FORWARD IS MORE IMPORTANT ... I WILL RESTRUCTURE THIS COMPANY AT MY FULL RESPONSIBILITY.” — Nagamori-san (via company comic)"

"After missing consensus EPS for 6 straight quarters, a string of exploration failures, and substantial capex overruns, John Hess announces that the Company is in midst of transformation that started in 2009 (later revised to 2010 start). This is company's 7th restructuring under current CEO."

"The jagged steps are so close together in the blue region that you can't see the steps—it almost looks like a smooth curve, but then the steps become obvious at the end. Each step is getting longer, and each step is going up in current, which is on the far right y-axis. — Former R&D employee"

"TASK is trying to sell investors on COVID-19 related expenses as adjustments to EBITDA and EPS. This might be perfectly acceptable if it were common practice for public company peers to do so. However, we don't believe that to be the case. As a result, we adjust TASK's EBITDA lower by ~$8m."

"We particularly note the role of reps and the central team in managing side effects such as “over-stimulation” - given the complex and multi-factorial nature of pain management, we question how reps are making clinical diagnoses of “over-stimulation” and determining its cause and treatment."

"Pershing Square believes, based on our investigation, that in the past Herbalife's compliance department made essentially no effort to enforce or audit compliance with the 70% Rule or the Ten Customer Rule and has taken steps to make Herbalife's return policy unattractive to distributors."

"He began by estimating that more than 40% of prescriptions were off-label and stated that the entire strategy was to push for off-label sleepiness in the absence of cataplexy; to misrepresent other drugs patients had to fail first; and that reps were incentivized to engage in the conduct."

"We intend to vote “AGAINST” George S. Mayes, Jr., Javier Polit and Laurie A. Tucker at the 2025 Annual Meeting to hold them accountable for their missteps and to send a message to the Board that shareholders will not tolerate more episodes of avoidable value destruction at Forward Air."