Callouts & quotes from 1,434+ activist slides

""In terms of profit margin, it’s got to be one of the lowest. There’s a lot of competition in the market, and over time, people expect the price to drop and drop, so we keep dropping it. Relative to other types of more sophisticated services, we cannot charge a lot of money for that. We cannot say we are truly differentiated in gene synthesis. That’s not something that is conventional to say...I don’t think for gene synthesis, and I think we have gone past that time point where we can say that. So, I think going forward; it will probably continue to be a commodity. Just banking on the one service to make all of the profit is not a successful strategy at this point." — Executive at Genscript, key Twist competitor"

"We targeted, although we don't have a specific date in mind but overall annualized basis we ought to be able to get [SCC] up over 15%. As you capture the new products Verifi will be a piece of that. We get good margins out of Verifi...But all in, businesses ought to be north of 15% EBIT margin business. — Greg Poling, President & CEO, August 2016; These are all high-margin specialty applications...You can see the margins for construction are best in class here running from 23%, to just under 26%. We maintain these margins because of the specialty nature of the product, the distribution network, and the fact that they specified for high-end applications. — Greg Poling, President & CEO, May 2016"

"“If we turn to Amazon, which is an emerging channel, it’s continuing to grow at 36% over last year. Monster’s growth is at 55% and is continuing to lead the category sales in the Amazon section. 4 weeks numbers are very similar with Monster’s growth at 62% and continuing to still be the leading brand in Amazon.” — Monster Management (Jan 2023); “But I’ve said in the past that we have a large unmeasured channel, channels, food service, Amazon.” — Monster Management (Jan 2024); “Monster has become more dependent on selling through Amazon due to Amazon’s market share increases. Higher gross margin however lower contribution margin due to the costs to service Amazon.” — Former Monster Employee"

"“So, they would take back the A150 and then they would give us an A300 at a reduced price from the retail price.” — Senior employee at Marvell Technology; “If they haven't taken any reserves or impairments against their total balance sheet, then with the cost of their inventory - we've seen it before, where the valuation that they place is not what it actually is, and they defer out when they're going to do that impairment because they don't want to record a hit on their gross margin. This is a common thing, unfortunately, that I've seen across multiple companies in the space. That's what I've actively seen to be done to try to manipulate earnings.” — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

""Vanderbilt is the biggest heart transplant program not in the country but in the world. The volume is gigantic. They do zero TransMedics...they are so upset...they hate the company." — Transplant surgeon at Vanderbilt. "I know I can’t use it too much, or I’m not going to be making any money, and then I’m not going to have a job...if a hospital thinks they’re losing money by providing a service, are they really going to go out and provide a service? So, that’s why I said I had to have an actual financial talk with my head of finance and describe the margins and how they’re doing." — Transplant surgeon and transplant program director at a major academic center in Pennsylvania."

"Yes. Obviously, we don't give margin targets by segment, but I would say that within ESG and Climate, our focus is really on driving top line growth, not margin expansion. And so we're not targeting for the margin to expand from current levels. — CFO Q2'2022; I would say I would not overly focus on the margins in any given segment in any period. And more generally, we are not focused heavily on segment margins or the company margin overall. Our primary focus is on driving strong EPS growth. The margin is an input into that, and our pace of spend is an input into that. But overall, we're really focused on driving that attractive EPS growth over time. — CFO Q2'2023"

"“Their CEO is pretty arrogant. He’s an arrogant prick. I mean, look at what they did. They bought $12-13 million aircraft. It’s beautiful, but guess what? It works just as well as a $2 million aircraft or lease the damn thing and have a reasonable logistics expense, but it’s just price gouging. It’s unbelievable. It’s not what transplant is meant to be. It’s not meant to be this crazy. I don’t care. Make your margin, crush it, but don’t withhold it and make it almost impossible to use your technology that’s going to help people just because you’re a prick. People don’t like him.” — CEO of a major OPO (Organ Procurement Organization), longtime industry executive"

""The way we roll out new products is that we usually -- once we have an idea and we know that technically we can do it, we go and approach our customers to see if there is an interest in the product and to ascertain how strong is their interest; and more importantly, even though there might be an interest, whether they would actually pay us a premium for it, because we have found out that you can introduce really interesting products for markets like smart phones, TVs, and while they might give customers a lot of benefits, it doesn't translate into higher ASPs or better margin for us. So we do go and verify that.." — Former CFO Meera Rao, Needham Conf Jan 2016"

""The way we roll out new products is that we usually -- once we have an idea and we know that technically we can do it, we go and approach our customers to see if there is an interest in the product and to ascertain how strong is their interest; and more importantly, even though there might be an interest, whether they would actually pay us a premium for it, because we have found out that you can introduce really interesting products for markets like smart phones, TVs, and while they might give customers a lot of benefits, it doesn't translate into higher ASPs or better margin for us. So we do go and verify that." — Former CFO Meera Rao, Needham Conf Jan 2016"

""There IS a large margin gap between Arconic's engineered product business... Kleinfeld SHOULD face questions about why he got 2016 guidance so wrong for Arconic." — Bloomberg, February 7, 2017; "I think there is a legitimate question that's being raised by Elliott which is how long before Klaus really delivers versus his peers...I think it would be a better company if the Elliott guys got on this board than this current board." — Jim Cramer, February 1, 2017; "We see as much as 20% downside if Kleinfeld continues as CEO." — Gordon Haskett, February 13, 2017; "It is hard to see him [Dr. Kleinfeld] surviving." — The New York Times, February 28, 2017"

""But at its core, it's as simple as customers need help. They don't do these projects all the time... When our designers are involved, as I mentioned, it's one of the highest tickets we have in the entire company. The gross margin rate is higher because we get them to buy or we help them make the decisions to buy the installation categories and the decorative products that are higher margin." — June 7, 2022 Baird Conference. "We do see benefits in the installation category, when we take prices down, we have taken prices down in installation material, our penetration has gone up. That's a product that is brand recognition." — Q1 2024 Earnings Call."

""We strongly believe that we are in a great position to establish a first-mover advantage to roll out a product that performs well on a pizza... Nondairy cheese, on the other hand, has relatively few players and is a space we feel we can be successful in." — COO Beckmann, Feb 4, 2021. "We feel very good about swapping cheese, I guess, traditional cheese volume for plant-based cheese volume and the margins are very, very healthy." — CEO, Feb 10, 2022. "Quite frankly, who likes the product? They have a substantial plan for retail and are pushing hard, but I think the sales team is struggling." — Former U.S. Sales Executive, Spruce Point Interview."

"So that inventory, let's say it's got high book value. [I'm assuming] they'll just call the leasing team and put this engine back on lease, and then we'll just get some depreciation of the year, run it down, and then we'll transfer it back to Aerospace Products... Because, you know, you like, oh shit, if I'm not gonna make, you know, 35% margin on that module, it's really going to affect my numbers or my valuation. So I'll pop it back to leasing for three months, find a customer, put it on wing for six months a year, two years, whatever the life is. And then, you know, comes off wing, which is to the same circus again. — Former FTAI executive"

"“If you’re a sub shop owner and you have to make a ham sandwich three different ways to make it right once, you’re going to lose money. That’s that analogy. It’s something that I don’t think they get. For my aunt or someone along that line, I would just say, think of any business, if you have to do it multiple times to make one product, you have to make sure that every time you do it, that cost is extraordinarily low and that you know how to price it to get the appropriate positive gross margins to eventually achieve at least operational net zero. But if you can’t make a profit, you’re not long for this world.” — Ex-senior executive of Gen9"

""International is an area we made important progress during this quarter." — CEO Dudum on Q2 2021 Earnings Call; "In Q3, we expect Honest Health and Apostrophe to generate between $4 million to $5 million in revenue." — CFO Lee on Q2 2021 Earnings Call; "Its early days for Honest Health and Apostrophe and their businesses are in a fairly similar place, where we were a couple of years ago." — CFO Lee on Q2 2021 Earnings Call; "As we indicated on our previous earnings call, the quarter-over-quarter decrease in gross margin was primarily driven by lower margin revenue from Apostrophe and Honest Health." — CFO Lee on Q3 2021 Earnings Call"

""...we’re not at all surprised that value-oriented investors have taken a significant stake... with Box spending ~41% of revenue on sales and marketing (higher than most SaaS peers in the ~30% range), we think a shift towards margin expansion could provide an avenue for unlocking shareholder value." — Raymond James, September 2019; "Margin profile is unfit for BOX’s current growth rate. With S&M at north of 40% of revenue, we should be seeing a greater impact in revenue and billings acceleration. Gross margin also continues to decline, coming in at 71.3% this quarter, in comparison to 72.3% last quarter." — Craig-Hallum, August 2019"

"Do you think that maybe because your sort of the one big dominant player in the industry, you're a little bit more insulated from maybe competitor discounts and promotions, maybe relative to some other apparel footwear companies out there? — Analyst. That said, you're right to call out that we are the brand in the industry. We're the leading brand in the industry, and we really almost never turn up the promotional lever because it just doesn't seem to pay back either in that year and certainly not in the following year when we have to go off again, sort of an artificial lift in sales that may have been margin eroding. — CEO Response"

""But the market wages are shifting on us literally every single month. So we have to be aware that we will see wages go up next year. We have the ability to pass on some, but not all of that to our customers. The majority of our contracts on an account basis have cost-of-living adjustments baked into them, where we can increase customers' rates commensurate with the wage increase that we're going to give to our employees. But some of our largest contracts, which are signed for 2-year or 3-year terms, have fixed pricing. And so in some cases, we'll see a gross margin impact as a result of that." — CEO Maddock, JPM Conf Nov 18, 2021"

"The CEO came from Chevron Phillips Chemical. That is another thing I think they should look at. Take Mark Lashier, he's an expert there, and spin off that business. — Anonymous Investor; We have had significant issues with Mark Lashier, who's the CEO. He is on the hot seat at this point due to these operational issues. — Anonymous Investor; This last Q4 where Phillips came out and their refining margins were so weak, so weak. That is just fundamentally unacceptable. — Anonymous Investor; Mark controls everything and that is not a good thing and as you can see that does not lead to strong corporate performance. — Anonymous Investor"

"“…we’re not at all surprised that value-oriented investors have taken a significant stake…with Box spending ~41% of revenue on sales and marketing (higher than most SaaS peers in the ~30% range), we think a shift towards margin expansion could provide an avenue for unlocking shareholder value.” — Raymond James, September 2019; “Margin profile is unfit for BOX’s current growth rate. With S&M at north of 40% of revenue, we should be seeing a greater impact in revenue and billings acceleration. Gross margin also continues to decline, coming in at 71.3% this quarter, in comparison to 72.3% last quarter.” — Craig-Hallum, August 2019"

"Oct 28, 2021: "And so as a result, we have seen some increased costs as well in terms of inflation on those items. But to date, our supply chain and procurement teams have really just been able to manage that." — Stryker CFO/IR. Jan 27, 2022: "we expect gross margin performance to be negatively impacted by 50 to 100 basis points with a more pronounced impact in the first half of the year." — Stryker CFO/IR. March 11, 2022: "it's going to lean more towards 100 basis points in the first half of the year and then it will moderate down as some of these supply chain issues improve in the back half of the year." — Stryker CFO/IR."

""So from a PreCheck perspective, we've talked about, I think, over the last probably 8 quarters that we've been carrying expenses overhead for PreCheck and that's why we're so optimistic on our high incremental margins." — CEO, Q4 2023, Feb 28, 2024. "And just quickly on the PreCheck. Look, PreCheck is going really well. It's gaining great momentum. We're live today in 91 locations, driving market share. In terms of upsell rates, we have 90% plus marketing opt-in rate. And our upsell rate for those members or those people joining PreCheck that are not already CLEAR members is approaching 20%." — CFO, Q4 2024, Feb 26, 2025."

"“fraudulent revenue recognition practices” such as “pull in” sales by offering “undisclosed concessions...to order products earlier than wanted or needed so Magnachip would hit revenue targets”; 2) “recognizing revenue on ‘sales’ of non-existent or unfinished products...falsified books and records”; 3) “manipulated gross margin...delayed scrapping obsolete inventory by several months or years...inflated its gross margin...records did not accurately reflect inventory values...made improper entries...to increase the inventory value when no manufacturing process had occurred.” — SEC complaint against Magnachip Semiconductor"

""Q4/2023 adjusted EBITDA increased 18% y/y to $525 million, in line with the FactSet consensus of $522 million and our $527 million estimate" and "Management continues to deliver impressive EBITDA margin improvement WSP's Q4/2023 adjusted EBITDA margin increased 150 bps y/y to 19.0%....." — Canaccord, 2/8/24; "Adj. EBITDA of $525 mm beat Stifel's $518 mm by 1.4% and FactSet consensus of $522 mm by 0.6%. Adj. EBITDA margin of 19.0% was very strong and came in higher than our forecast of 18.2% and the Street at 18.7%. EPS was $1.99, 4.2% higher than us at $1.91 and 3.8% higher than the Street at $1.91." — Stifel, 2/29/24"

"Both Resideo and Snap One share a strong culture of innovation and employee bases dedicated to supporting their integrators and driving value in the markets where they operate. We see significant benefits for integrators in the combined businesses with a wider selection of third-party and proprietary products, access and enhancements to support services and rapid product fulfillment through a comprehensive branch footprint and strong digital capabilities. All of this creates an attractive financial profile that we expect to be accretive to revenue growth, margins and non-GAAP EPS for Resideo. — CEO Deal Call April 2024"

"It’s worth noting that most of the revenue associated with a hybrid capture workflow comes from library prep. It doesn’t actually come from hybrid capture. Those are the two components in that workflow. So, most of that market, the number that I specified, most of that is library preop. And another two players are added there: Illumina, who makes the machines, and NEG, and IDT just acquired a company that specializes in this. It’s well-known that they don’t manufacture their library prep kit. They have to purchase it elsewhere and resell it, so their margins are less on that. — Former employee now at a key competitor"

"Our Regulated Natural Gas segment is affected by the cost of natural gas, which is passed through to customers using a purchased gas adjustment clause and includes commodity price, transportation and storage costs. These costs are reflected in the consolidated statement of operations and comprehensive income as purchased gas expenses. Therefore, fluctuations in the cost of purchased gas impact operating revenues on dollar-for-dollar basis but does not impact gross margin. Purchased gas increased by $159,287 or 103.4% due to an increase in the price of natural gas in 2021 as compared to the prior year — 2021 10-K"

"“...if growth has been decelerating dramatically while Box spent like a drunken sailor, we wonder how Box can improve margins while stabilizing growth, given the low gross margins and low sales efficiency” — D.A. Davidson, November 2019; “The company’s revenue performance has been nothing to celebrate this year. ~11% revenue growth in FY’21, while almost the entirety of the software space is parading the past year as the year of digital transformation acceleration, has left BOX shares at a standstill and is head-scratching as the pandemic should logically be a major tailwind for BOX” — Craig-Hallum, March 2021"

"“I don’t know how they an make it”; “their process and method are not sustainable.” — Ex-manufacturing employees. “When I went out there and saw what they were doing, I was shocked.” — A longtime industry executive. “an overengineered solution that they called a chip.” — A longtime industry executive. “the problem is that the whole process is labor intensive”; “what they do is very low margin” and takes “manual labor.” — Ex-employees. “that’s labor and you need people to do that in each tube” — Ex-staff. “one-week process” — Ex-staff. “customers frustrated because they cannot deliver on time.” — Ex-staff."

"Mercury is building a C4I rugged server business. Mercury highlighted how its acquisition of Germane benefits from its FY18 acquisition of Themis, which the company views as a platform to build upon. The two entities have complementary rugger server portfolios and cover much of the C4I market with an expected ~$100 mn in revenue. Near-term, the Germane acquisition is dilutive to company-wide profitability but Mercury should achieve cost synergies after integrating the units and believes the combined entity will reach the midpoint of MRCY's adjusted EBITDA margin target in 2020 — JPMorgan July 2018"

""Just in Workforce Now...I would say from a margin perspective since it's leveraging our existing SaaS applications and leveraging our existing auto payback and infrastructure, margins are equivalent or slightly higher than core traditional payroll." — Carlos A. Rodriguez, President, Small Business; "...On the margin side, we are seeing as I think, Gary, mentioned today fewer service calls and I think that would lead one to believe that we would have margin expansion as a result of the RUN product eventually being rolled out fully..." — Campbell B. Langdon, President, Major Account Division"

""If you take the SG&A for this year, Mike, we're probably -- we're around 24% to 25% on remainco with all of the costs on the SG&A, okay? We're targeting in '18 to get that number on a run rate basis down to 22% to 23%." — Greg Poling, President & CEO, May 2017; "We're going to target a couple of points of margin improvement over the timeframe you're talking about across the business. But it really is going to be driven on creating value, we're either going to increase the quality or take the labor cost or production cost out of these products..." — Greg Poling, President & CEO, May 2016"

""This quarter, we reported a positive gross margin of $1.8 million, and we expect to continue to improve our operational synergies..." — Leproust, April 30, 2019 press release. "In addition, we delivered continued improvements in our gross margin, which increased to 16 percent of revenue in the third quarter..." — Jim Thorburn, CFO of Twist, Aug 1, 2019 press release. "We posted a positive 21% gross margin for the fiscal 2019 fourth quarter and 13% for the full year as our revenue scaled and we leveraged our cost structure," — Jim Thorburn, CFO of Twist, Dec 11, 2019 press release."

"The intense competition we face in the sales of our products and services and general economic and business conditions could put pressure on us to change our prices. If our competitors offer deep discounts on certain products or services or develop products that the marketplace considers more valuable, we may need to lower prices, introduce pricing models and offerings that are less favorable to us, or offer other favorable terms in order to compete successfully. Any such changes could reduce revenues and margins and adversely affect our operating results. — DV 2022 10-K"

"“Derma is a great place to be in ... generally, you are going to be pricing higher than mass cosmetics so the margins are better, but very often you will be going through the same retail channels as mass so there a distribution overlaps if you are already playing in mass. Because it tends to occupy a middle ground between prestige and mass cosmetics it's also one of those items that tends to be less susceptible to budget cutting in a recession as well versus prestige cosmetics” — Former Unilever Prestige Cosmetics Division Brand Director, Oasis interview November 2023"

""If you lined up all these biological instruments, like every instrument you can imagine for life sciences, I don't know the exact number; it's gotta be in the 99th or 98th percentile on price. It is up there. And look at 10X, I mean, flip this thing on its head. 10X offers a dirt-cheap system. It's $60k, $100k, something like that, easily covered under a grant, and then they sell these consumables. That are kind of expensive, but the margins are great. It's a razor blade model. BLI model is the reverse - a $2,000,000 device, and a $2000 chip" — Former BLI executive"

"“What they do is very low margin and labor-intensive to provide that service. You can see the gene oligo synthesis. You can probably automate it. They try to automate all of the processes. They try to decrease the cost, but the problem is DNA oligo synthesis has a very low value. You cannot sell it very high, even for the DNA and, yes, the panel; you have to customize it. You have to have someone test and design those oligos and test those oligo sets to demonstrate it works. You have to improve it. It takes manual labor.” — Former Twist employee, director-level"

""Restricted stock units were also granted on an off-cycle basis to Mr. Boehnlein and Mr. Menon in May 2021 and to Mr. Pierce and Mr. Stiles in October 2021... awarded in recognition of their efforts and contributions related to the Company's cost transformation initiative" — Stryker Proxy Statement. "And so we haven't seen anything really show up in terms of any major impacts on our financials... we expect gross margin performance to be negatively impacted by 50 to 100 basis points" — CFO and IR Q3 and Yr End Call Conf Calls and Cowen Conf March 11th 2022."

""Stryker is reducing gross margin expectations. We're now 18 months into COVID maybe two years. Why do you think is the reason it's taken so long for them to admit some of the supply chain challenges?" — Spruce Point Question. "So what's been happening here is just indicative of the larger ecosystem in terms of all the supply chain challenges that are ongoing... I think that's now playing catch up where, it's just been hard for Stryker to keep up with the level of issues going on with their supply base." — Former Stryker Supply Chain Professional."

""The company is on track to deliver top-tier earnings and revenue growth, with industry competitive margins - including ~400 basis points of operating ratio improvement during the second half of 2024." — Norfolk Southern press release (Mar. 20, 2024). "Norfolk Southern has brought on John Orr as COO to accelerate the execution of its strategy. John Orr is a PSR expert and comes to Norfolk Southern following a long and successful career at multiple railroads including Canadian National and CPKC." — Norfolk Southern press release (Mar. 20, 2024)."

""...the presence of an activist investor suggests that shareholder friendly capital allocation focus could persist...Activist investor Starboard Value reported acquiring an 8.4% stake in Huntsman on September 28, 2021 and shortly thereafter publicly shared slides noting, among other things, "We believe there is a meaningful opportunity for margin improvement." As such, we think operational efficiency potential or portfolio management announcements are likely to remain top of mind over the near-to-medium term." — Morgan Stanley, November 2021"

""Yeah, well, Intelligent we did last year, it's small more just product oriented and Contact Solutions similar small maybe a few in the quarter, but really small contribution. So to just clarify that we see a part of our land and expense strategy... we generally just focus on the technology and how to bring this technology into our portfolio and of course when we do a larger acquisitions then we provide a complete breakdown of revenue and gross margin and profit, but it's really not applicable in this case." — Doug Robinson – CFO, Verint"

"In 2022, it was identified that certain sale transactions with certain counterparties included the simultaneous execution of a corresponding contract to repurchase the same quantity of goods in the future for logistical purposes. In accordance with IFRS 15, such contracts should not be recorded as revenue from customers as such transactions do not relate to the selling of goods to the end customer. As a result, comparative amounts for revenue and cost of goods sold for 2021 have been similarly represented, with no impact on gross margin."

"LiNiCo plans to commence production later this year, building toward cathode production capacity of about 10,000 tons per year. At just 33% of that rate and 60% of applicable commodity prices, the LiNiCo facility should generate more than $100 million in sales with pre-tax operating income margins exceeding 30%, adding 40 good paying Nevada jobs and making a landmark contribution to Comstock's Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance (“ESG”), Product and Process Stewardship and Climate Smart Mining goals. — Comstock Press Release"

"“We’re number one in about 2/3 of the segments in which we compete...We’re number one in the cement additives business...Number two in concrete admixtures worldwide...We’re number one in a segment of the waterproofing business” — Greg Poling, President & CEO, January 2016. “We have a nimble, very low capital intensity business, and a very flexible footprint...We think these are sustainable advantages...Our margins and return on invested capital are as high as you’ll see in the industry...” — Greg Poling, President & CEO, January 2016."

""The latest portfolio restructuring announcement this morning reflects the last in a series of value-creating divestitures which have been consistent with our stated strategy of focusing on a differentiated portfolio...I expect this new company to generate revenue growth at a rate well in excess of global GDP and average EBITDA margins approaching 15%. We will be a strong vibrant $9 billion differentiated chemical company with tens of thousands of different products and formulations." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, February 2007"

"Absolutely does; it’s at least an order of magnitude off on the revenue side. I could see tens of millions if everything went right, but where are you going to get the volumes you mentioned? The pipeline can be 10 or 20 years to get significant volumes, so its difficult to imagine hundreds of millions of dollars on the recycling side. Margins will be negative, and I wouldn’t want that much capacity. I don’t see it. It’s way too early to talk about that kind of money and volumes and that number of players. — Lithium Industry Expert"

"“Because when we delight our members, we can drive more engagement, revenue and profit than the competition...Our goals are to sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow... Since our global launch in 2016, we’ve been able to invest heavily in our slate...while steadily increasing our operating margins (up more than 5X, from 4% to 21% over the same period) and growing our free cash flow (from negative $3.3B in 2019 to positive $6.9B in 2023).” — Netflix Q4 2023 Letter to Shareholders"

"Other sales and revenues, which includes gains on the sales of loans we originate, GAP waiver coverage and sales commissions on VSCs and totaled $33.4 million and $13.0 million during the years ended December 31, 2017 , respectively. We expect other sales and revenues to increase with retail units sold and as we improve our ability to offer attractive financing solutions and ancillary products to our customers. Other sales and revenues are 100% gross margin products for which gross profit equals revenue. — CVNA FY 17 10-K, Pg. 54"

"“If they haven’t taken any reserves or impairments against their total balance sheet, then with the cost of their inventory - we’ve seen it before, where the valuation that they place is not what it actually is, and they defer out when they’re going to do that impairment because they don’t want to record a hit on their gross margin. This is a common thing, unfortunately, that I’ve seen across multiple companies in the space. That I’ve actively seen to be done to try to manipulate earnings.” — Senior employee at Marvell Technology"

"Because when we delight our members, we can drive more engagement, revenue and profit than the competition...Our goals are to sustain healthy revenue growth, expand operating margin and deliver growing free cash flow... Since our global launch in 2016, we've been able to invest heavily in our slate...while steadily increasing our operating margins (up more than 5X, from 4% to 21% over the same period) and growing our free cash flow (from negative $3.3B in 2019 to positive $6.9B in 2023). — Netflix Q4 2023 Letter to Shareholders"

""But looking forward, we want to reiterate our commitment to long-term growth of 25% on the top line." — Fmr. CEO Zollars, Vocera 2012 Conf Call; "We, however, have not changed our view of the long-term gross margin target of 70%, since we believe all the same drivers remain in place." — Fmr. CEO Zollars, Vocera Q1 2013 Conf Call; "And we've published that our target model at a $200 million run rate, we believe we can get to a 68% gross margin and a 20% adjusted EBITDA margin." — CEO Lang, Vocera JPM Conf, Jan 12, 2017"

""The contribution margin was something in the 40-cent range for the cases you use TransMedics on." — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading academic transplant center; "Waleed and his people got so angry at the Duke guy for bringing it up. I know for a fact that the Duke guys were on target to do a huge percentage of their liver transplants using TransMedics in a given year but they dropped their volume by 20% because they were taking such a bath." — Prominent surgeon, Director of leading academic transplant center"

""In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations" — DuPont Management. "...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points." — Jeff Zeakauskas, JP Morgan. "...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint" — DuPont Management."

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — Jeff Zekauskas, JP Morgan. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont Management."

"“For longer distance of marginal grafts, we use other cooler systems that are really coming around, which we’ve found have less re-perfusion injuries...post-transplant.”; “for both DBD and DCD, we’ve been trying to prioritize using these coolers that keep the heart closer to 8-10 degrees or so”; “even for long distance using 8 or 10-degree coolers is the preference...we’ve traveled as far as Alaska to procure hearts and haven’t had any issue.” — Transplant cardiologist at one of the top centers in the US/world"

"“And just quickly on the whole B2B side partnerships, is that all, I mean, that's sort of a money losing business. What's the strategy there?” — Spruce Point Question. “It's definitely a money losing business. Caryn wants to be ubiquitous... I don't think companies are willing to pay a dollar a person or a dollar a transaction... I think when I was there, they were really focused on sports and sports had no margins, and we actually paid the sports stadiums for the right to be there.” — Former CLEAR Employee"

"Included in transaction revenues was the impact of a newly negotiated contract with our Payments partner at Upserve and ShopKeep. This new contract did two things, provide us with better economics than the businesses we're achieving on their own and also brought us better control over the end customer relationships. As a result of this we were able to realize an uplift in revenue of approximately $7 million in the quarter and greater gross margins as well, this is a great news story. — CFO Nussey, May 2021"

"So, you're going to attract a lot of attention from Chinese companies that would love to come in with like a substantially lower price. And quite frankly, they're glad to get 20 or 30 points margins. And their costs are a lot cheaper because it's all developed and built in China. So, the threat to Zebra is really there's like a whole pack of like Tier-2 and Tier-3 suppliers nipping at their heels from the bottom of the market with lower cost solutions. — Former Senior Product Manager at Zebra Technologies"

"“In terms of margins, the accounting change really accounts for the shift that you're seeing. So we have not revised up or revised down our expectations” — DuPont Management. “...Safety and Protection margin [targets] that you show are 21% to 23% which is what they were 18 months ago. But you now exclude your pension cost...[which was] more than 500 basis points.” — JP Morgan analyst. “...You're right, Jeff. The margin is lower between 400 and 500 basis points from that standpoint” — DuPont Management."