Callouts & quotes from 1,061+ activist slides

"“Our investment thesis is simple, we are a team of operators and we’ll build lasting shareholder value through consistent NOI growth” — CEO (BRX first earnings call). “10th consecutive quarter of SS NOI growth in excess of 3.5%. “No other sector peer can make this statement”” — CEO (4Q14 earnings call)."

"Lasertec is an extreme, textbook accounting fraud that checks off every box: claiming to have the highest margins in the industry; but alarmingly little cash flow and the lowest cash conversion among its peers; accompanied by the highest inventory level of any semicap equipment supplier in the world."

"We believe a relevant publically traded peer set to compare IRBT should include small cap consumer electronic and household product companies such as: Sodastream (SODA), Leapfrog (LF), Skullcandy (SKUL), Zagg (ZAGG), NetGear (NTGR), Voxx (VOXX), Universal Electronics (UEIC) and Select Comfort (SCSS)"

"If Monster were valued in a range of 4x – 5x sales and 15x – 18x EBITDA consistent with its peers and closer to recent industry M&A transactions of faster growing companies such Celsius acquiring Alani Nu and Keurig Dr. Pepper acquiring GHOST Energy, we could see 25% - 40% long-term downside risk."

"Prior to Starboard filing a Schedule 13D on September 17, 2012, Office Depot’s stock price had materially underperformed both the broader equity markets, its Peer Group, and its direct office supply superstore (“OSS”) competitors – Staples and OfficeMax – over almost any measurement period."

"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."

"On the sales side, I want to talk about sales and talk about our leasing activity and our leasing spread... The moods of the retailers, and you've heard this on the other conference calls with our peers, is improving dramatically. — Art Coppola, Chairman & CEO of Macerich, November 5, 2009"

"I would have to go through at least five layers [at Bristol-Myers], whereas I would have to go through three layers at a different company to do the same thing. This would result in the same process taking 4-6 months at Bristol versus 1-2 months at [peers]. — Former Bristol-Myers Executive"

"We believe that PSX' debt levels are already appropriate for their mix of businesses (using 3.5x for midstream, 2.5x for chems, and 1.0x for refining based on peers, we would expect a 2.5x debt/EBITDA target is appropriate which they are already below). — Bank of America, February 7, 2025"

"We believe that PSX' debt levels are already appropriate for their mix of businesses (using 3.5x for midstream, 2.5x for chems, and 1.0x for refining based on peers, we would expect a 2.5x debt/EBITDA target is appropriate which they are already below). — Bank of America, February 7, 2025"

"We believe that PSX' debt levels are already appropriate for their mix of businesses (using 3.5x for midstream, 2.5x for chems, and 1.0x for refining based on peers, we would expect a 2.5x debt/EBITDA target is appropriate which they are already below). — Bank of America, February 7, 2025"

"The other large cap public midstream companies would all have an eye on Phillips 66’s midstream business if it were for sale. Given how underperforming the business has been, all the peers would know that $4 billion of EBITDA could easily be turned into $5 billion or more. — Michael Heim"

"Investors ascribe CHD the highest valuation in the consumer products sector, mostly on the misplaced belief that its growth is fastest among peers, but fail to account for the low quality contribution from acquisitions, and recent price increases that have temporarily boosted revenues."

"Phillips 66 has repeatedly highlighted the absolute dollar amount it has returned to shareholders via dividends and share repurchases, without mentioning that it trails its peers relative to its market cap on this metric. Management's omission of key information deceives shareholders."

"Skechers’ purchase commitments relative to LTM revenue are approximately 64% higher than that its peers as of their most recent fiscal year end. Moreover, Skechers’ increase in relative purchase commitments since before COVID-19 (FY-2 for all) is over twice as high as that of others."

"2U is the highest valued “Cloud based SaaS” company. 2U is currently priced for perfection and we believe the stock will re-rate as downward estimate revisions come to fruition as well as the realization that the EBITDA margin profile will never mature similar to its SaaS peer group."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside to Nuvei’s share price as the Company is overvalued on all financial metrics, and should trade at best in-line with peer valuations, and at worse a material discount to reflect the numerous concerns we’ve documented in our report."

"This has resulted in executive compensation at AOL that is approximately 3.4 times the median compensation of an appropriate peer group that fits within the guidelines recommended by both ISS and Glass Lewis, despite poor absolute and relative stock price and financial performance."

"The board of directors are ultimately responsible for setting strategy, driving execution, and holding management accountable for performance. If the board is not aligned with peer standards, neither will be strategy and performance. Thus, "A Better Kao" starts with a better board."

"NSK, NTN, JTEKT, U.S. Steel, and AK Steel are unsuitable peers for TKR. Although Altra and Kennametal are adequate peers, they are substantially less similar to TKR's bearings business than SKF, but their inclusion in a broader peer group does not alleviate TKR's trading discount."

"When compared to peers, Limbach has among the lowest NTM RPO as a percentage of estimated NTM revenue. This could imply a weaker forward revenue base, shorter project durations, or less visibility into future revenue, potentially signaling elevated revenue risk relative to peers."

"Most of the Company's independent Directors have been on the Board for at least 8 years (average/median tenure of approximately 9 years), and rather than being "agents of change," they have overseen the Company at a time during which it has significantly underperformed its peers"

"WD-40’s valuation relative to its own selected peers set of specialty chemical and auto part distributors exposes its extreme valuation. Its valuation becomes even more expensive once it becomes evident that overly aggressive estimates for 2020-2021 will be difficult to achieve."

"Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) investors are voting with their feet. The company's stock outperformed peers by 11% with Elliott's release of its #Streamline66 plan, then sank when Phillips 66 management publicly doubled down on its conglomerate structure and midstream growth strategy."

"While there are differences between Smiths' businesses and these companies, the fact that Smiths trades at a meaningful discount to its pure play peers in each of its divisions is a powerful attestation that the entire Company trades at a sizable discount to its SOTP valuation."

"We aren't going to give you a specific margin target, but it should result in between 100 to 150 bps of margin improvement annually on the pathway to narrow the margin gap with peers and deliver industry competitive margins. — CEO Alan Shaw, Q4 2023 Earnings Call, Jan. 26, 2024"

"However, despite having arguably the best positioned portfolio in the consumer packaged goods industry, Nestlé shares have significantly underperformed most of their US and European consumer staples peers on a three year, five year, and ten year total shareholder return basis."

"Dollarama has no promotional expense. Meanwhile, promotional expenses average 1-2% of revenue among U.S. peers. As established competitors continue to expand, and as new competitors enter the market (Amazon included), Dollarama’s no-cost marketing strategy may prove untenable."

"Saputo has exhibited the largest increase in Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) among its global set of dairy industry peers. Whereas its DIOs were below average, now they are above industry average. In fact, over the past 4 years, Saputo's DIO have increased by nearly 20 days."

"Penumbra is a laggard in BOTH 1) scale and 2) stent retriever quality. The simultaneous growth of bundling and the solumbra technique - even as solumbra expands the market for aspiration catheters - will put Penumbra at a significant competitive disadvantage to larger peers."

"Spruce Point has conducted a benchmarking analysis of AMR's reported maintenance expense. AMR has relatively high maintenance capex spending to its gross property, plant and equipment base. Excluding sub-scale producer Ramaco Resources, AMR is a significant outlier to peers."

"Oasis estimates freeplus revenue for 2023 was less than USD 150 million, however, the estimated global retail value of its product peers, Kenvue’s Neutrogena (USD 2.9 billion) and L’Oréal’s Garnier (USD 6.4 billion), demonstrate the potential growth opportunity for freeplus."

"Kornit trades at a meaningful premium to direct digital printing peers it competes with, as well as its second largest print customer which is struggling, on the belief that its 20%+ revenue growth rate is sustainable and its margins are better than peers and will expand."

"It seems clear to us based on the table below, which highlights the significant TSR relative difference between Parkland and its peers pre and post Mr. McMillan's departure, that his departure represented a material and adverse development to Parkland's senior management."

"LSPD has a focus on SMBs but its DSOs at 15 are significantly lower than comparable sized peers at 70+ and actually improved during peak COVID-19 whereas peer DSOs worsened. How is this possible? On the next slide, we show that allowance for bad debts was even increasing."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside to Lightspeed’s share price as the Company appears overvalued on both revenue and gross profit metrics, and should trade at a material discount to peers given the strong evidence we’ve presented of its inferior business."

"Keisei's Board is swollen by an excessive number of inside directors resulting in misalignment with peers and falling short of acceptable governance standards – at least 4 of Keisei's current inside directors offer little to the Board and should not stand for re-election"

"Spruce Point finds Genius' working capital (current assets – current liabilities) to be significantly worse than its peers. We attribute this to Genius' inferior distributor business model in which Genius is at the mercy of its data suppliers and end market sportsbooks."

"Lone Star reports just 625 employees (and is currently advertising only seven open positions between Lone Star Paving and Materials). Yet, its backlog is projected to grow 15% and equates to $1.1m of backlog per current employee which is materially above reported peers."

"There were 298 blood cultures included in the study, and the Accelerate Pheno system provided a definitive identification result in 218 instances (73.2%). The Accelerate Pheno system provided a definitive and correct result for 173 runs (58.1%). — Peer-reviewed article"

"Spruce Point believes Sunrun's inclusion of financing companies in its peer set is appropriate to represent the financing and leasing aspect of Sunrun's diversified solar business. We believe these peers are more relevant for Sunnova's pure financing/leasing business."

"With student acquisition costs Increasing (i.e. marketing cost) and a realization amongst investors that “the install base” needs to be replenished every 2 years (i.e. students graduate out of the programs), a mid-range peer multiple of 5.0x to 7.0X revenues is likely"

""[PCC] generally leverages superb execution for market share gains through pricing strategies and long-term contracts. We believe [PCC] is one of the best operators in our space, as operating margins are generally above peer companies." — Bank of America, June 4, 2014"

"Samsung Electronics has outclassed its peers in terms of profitability for the semiconductor, display and consumer electronics segments and has made significant headway in improving the profitability of its mobile division in the two most recently reported quarters"

"European peers either don't capitalize R&D costs (Eppendorf), or capitalize and amortize over 3 – 6 years (Sartorius and Oxford). On the other hand, Mettler is opaque in terms of how much it is capitalizing annually, and states it amortizes costs up to 10 years."

"Carvana not only trades at nosebleed levels relative to its closest peers, even on consensus revenue growth expectations we regard as too high, Carvana now trades at a premium to leading tech players, all of whom enjoy better margins and generate free cash flow."

"Monster's market share appears to be the most pressured among its closest peers, and this is before Celsius acquired Alani Nu in February 2025 and Anheuser-Busch (BUD) announced in January 2025 that it would partner with 1st Phorm to launch a new energy drink."

"How is it possible that Lightspeed experienced no organic revenue decline as COVID-19 swept worldwide? Its closest revenue peers in the POS technology space, Par Technologies, Agilysys and Toast, experienced sales declines of -19%, -25% and -27%, respectively."

"Mr. Terreson, with approximately two decades of investment-analyst experience, must understand that investors do not "usually"—and certainly not "appropriately"—construct a peer group that effectively excludes the Company’s two core peers, Marathon and Valero"

"Mr. Terreson, with approximately two decades of investment-analyst experience, must understand that investors do not "usually"—and certainly not "appropriately"—construct a peer group that effectively excludes the Company’s two core peers, Marathon and Valero"

"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."

"The Company is arbitrarily selecting the ONLY time period in recent history where relative TSR against performance peers has performed better. We believe this is a blatant attempt to mislead shareholders on the Company's track record of dismal relative TSR."

"Disney has a much better “hand to play” than its peers to weather any disruption... but Disney's response to a changing landscape was ill-conceived and reactive... in large part because the Board disincentivized management to act – paid execs $1bn since ‘13"

"HGV is trading at a material discount to its closest peer, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: VAC) ("VAC"), based on 2022 EBITDA, whereas HGV historically traded at a comparable multiple to VAC. — HGV's Response to 4.20.21 Land & Buildings statement"

"P&G’s income statement has stalled since 2011, underperforming the peer average on virtually every line item including: sales growth (volume and organic growth), gross profit growth, gross margins, operating profit growth, operating margins and EPS growth"

"TASK is the only company among its peers that we could identify trying to sell investors on COVID-19 related expense adjustments to improve EBITDA and EPS. Analysts aren't asking any questions or pushing back on what we believe are aggressive adjustments."

"Spruce Point believes sell-side analysts and investors are not factoring in multiple issues that will likely cause Generac to severely miss its lofty financial expectations and/or should factor into Generac receiving a lower valuation relative to peers."

"At Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX), the numbers don't lie. The company has dramatically underperformed its peers since 2019, and shareholders have missed out on substantial returns. Vote the GOLD proxy card today to support a better tomorrow with #Streamline66."

"As noted, Intuit top-ticked marketing automation multiples when it acquired Mailchimp. Today, Mailchimp’s higher growth (the metric with the highest correlation to SaaS multiples) peer Klaviyo trades at 8.0x after a blowout Q2, a 25% discount to Intuit."