Callouts & quotes from 37,061+ activist slides

"Cutting advertising is a quick and easy way to boost EBITDA and unit economics as the full impact on unit sales lags the near instantaneous reduction in cost."

"The vast majority of the group’s members appear to be lurkers vs. families on drug – those curious about Vykat are noticing the deluge of negative commentary."

"In conclusion, we encourage shareholders to vote FOR Oasis nominees five independent, world-class Director candidates at Kao's upcoming AGM on March 21, 2024."

"The primary endpoint of Weekly Rate of Cataplexy was highly subjective and based on a patient-reported diary, rendering the data low-quality and questionable."

"Became alarmed after a 42-year old patient was hospitalized for QT prolongation. He disclosed the risk to his patients - and all but two quickly discontinued."

"Doug Cole’s disclosure regarding Great Bear Technology contains inconsistencies, and actual transaction sizes suggest largely immaterial corporate operations."

"Our model assumes the base business will earn ~57% EBITA margins through 2020, implying continued spend on promotion and R&D, despite no pipeline contribution"

"Investors should carefully weigh the substantial downside presented by Sinch's exposure to the scam call ecosystem against any perceived growth opportunities."

"We believe the previous purchase price of $2.95M just months prior to the IIPR purchase to be more accurate value of the property at the time of the purchase."

"We fail to understand why Holistic would rather pay 10x on rent and believe an overpayment of property + inflated rent look more like a financing transaction."

"This is all to that the design philosophy of the Midnight as a prospective FAA certified air taxi are not well aligned with the ‘attritable asset’ philosophy."

"We ask, why take a less than $250,000 8% interest rate loan from directors when you supposedly have at least 27x in both operating cash flow and cash at hand?"

"Even if some of these reviewers were genuine reviews, Trustpilot clearly allows a distortion of its scores from review spam that can very easily be prevented."

"It’s the things that happened at the company in 2023 that weren’t mentioned yesterday that investors need not forget about. That’s why they weren’t mentioned."

"The last step in calculating monthly utilization (number of PhenoTests per month per system) is dividing estimated reagent revenue by functional system-month."

"It does not look to us that physicians were eager to know PhenoTest results, otherwise why would they be not placing positive blood cultures on Pheno systems?"

"As shown in the image above, this address appears to be a beauty salon on Google Maps. This is more than a bit strange for a ~$700 million market cap company."

"Our investigators noticed almost no activity when observing it from the perimeter – it looks old and not like a high-technology innovation park or R&D center."

"As they moved into the interior, it became clear that the complex is essentially deserted and a ghost town, except for some landscaping work in the courtyard."

"“one of the great unprosecuted frauds of Canadian business history” — A Canadian lawyer. “house of cards” with “grossly inflated revenue” — A Canadian lawyer."

"This summary reveals that the assessment is based on unaudited figures and that their source was the management of the buyout firm. Now my question: How come?"

""During the fourth quarter, we achieved our strategic priority targets for shareholder distributions and asset dispositions." — Mark Lashier, January 31, 2025"

""Now, people still have questions. NetQin claims that it has a large market share, so why aren't there any NetQin users around us?" — LIN Qiling, ZHENG Daosen"

"So, saying that aerospace is going to grow in the high-single digits or a 10% or low-teens, I think is reasonable. — Tony Thene, CEO of Carpenter Technologies"

"Phillips 66 has claimed that in a $50bn TEV midstream sale, “tax leakage costs could be as high as $10 billion.” — Phillips 66 Letter to Shareholders, 4/8/25."

""I'm desperately in need of a strategy." — Richard Parsons (April 2002); "[i]t's not terribly different from what you see today." — Richard Parsons (May 2005)"

"We currently purchase finished circuit boards and injection-molded plastic components from suppliers located in the U.S., Mexico and Taiwan — Axon SEC Filings"

"At a fall 2013 meeting with PepsiCo’s leadership team, the CEO told Nelson that repurchasing the bottlers was a “mistake” but the bottlers were “in disarray.”"

"consumer compliance breakdowns, ...numerous unfair and deceptive practices and a deficient consumer compliance risk management program — Federal Reserve Board"

"「結像光学系を毎年交換しなければいけない、と聞いたことがあります。付着によって、揮発性化合物の量によって、光学系を毎年交換しなければいけません。その費用については、100万ドル以上かかりますね。第二と第四の鏡を交換しなければいなし、どちらも50万ドル以上かかります」 — KLAで極端紫外線マスク検査を担当した元幹部"

"「実に怖い」「ヘンだ」「製造現場は完成品が床を埋め尽くすような状態で、在庫でいっぱいになっている」「最終的な品質検査を通過していない完成品の在庫が相当量あるということ。顧客の要望で出荷を延ばしているのかどうかまで、私にはわかりません。しかも、訪問した同僚いわく、出荷ドックには文字通り隙間がありません」 — 企業幹部"

"DRI management shuts me out of another earnings call.. Running out of time is not an excuse. @jannarone article on #CNBC was $$$ — Howard Penney (@HedgeyeHWP)"

"‘We shook hands on a pact. Did you not shake my hand on it?’ ‘You stuck your hand out, so I shook it. I don't know about a pact.’ — Seinfeld, “The Engagement”"

"…we did not invest until we had secured a facility offering significant structural advantages, and was available at the right price. — Olam 2012 Annual Report"

"4/29/21: Mark Wang, CEO – “As Japan restrictions ease, we believe that Oahu will recover and set us up for a strong second half of the year…” — Mark Wang, CEO"

"“Viterra also enters into throughput agreements with terminals in other Brazilian ports, such as Santos and Paranagua, from time to time.” — Bunge SEC filings"

"Tantu will leverage Ginkgo’s foundries to accelerate strain construction as a key step toward human clinical trials. — Tantu and Ginkgo Bioworks Press Release"

"The only explanation that Ströer provided for these transactions was that they “more closely align company and shareholder interests.” — Ströer Annual Reports"

"「TSMCはその装置を何台も、おそらく10台だったと思いますが、発注したので否定的な論文を発表するわけにはいきません。......現場の管理者たちだけでなく、発注書を承認した経営陣も不快にさせますね。TSMCは階級意識がとても強い会社ですから、上司を困らせることは絶対的にまずいです」 — TSMCのマスク工場関係者"

"Well, it’s a company, right? That’s what their job is. We understand that they’re going to make it look better. — Physician, KOL, and Vykat trial investigator"

"An inverse agonist of the histamine H3 receptor improves wakefulness in narcolepsy: Studies in orexin-/- mice and patients — Lin, Dauvilliers, Schwartz et al."

"“the Company terminated a former executive and terminated the Company’s contract with an advisory firm.” — Danimer Merger Prospectus (11/30/2020, footnote 11)"

"Papa’s scientific and industry background, shareholder orientation, history of commercial excellence, and strong ethics make him the ideal leader for Valeant"

"EDU's WFOEs have very little business substance within them, which increases the temptation for EDU management to use the operating company to enrich itself."

"Given our concerns that Avery is running out of aggressive financial and accounting methods used to embellish its results, we see significant downside risks."

"Warning: Adjusted Net Income for 2018 Is Overstated By $14.3m ($73.7 – $59.4 Revised) Resulting In Adjusted EPS of $5.90 vs. $6.06 Reported (2.7% Overstated)"

"Given our concerns that Avery is running out of aggressive financial and accounting methods used to embellish its results, we see significant downside risks."

"We will typically vote against all directors of companies which do not publicly disclose their emissions and do not have a credible plan for their reduction."

"Based on my own informal survey, many fund managers have no idea of the breadth of tools available to them to improve corporate governance at their companies"

"Though there are valid concerns in the near term, we believe buying Danone at 1.5-2.0x P/E and ~33% FCF discount to European food peers more than compensates"

"The U.S. tower business is highly attractive, highlighted by long-lived physical structures, low churn, built-in price escalators and 95% incremental margins"

"Zoetis has agreed to share confidential company information with Pershing Square, improving our ability to help the company create value for all shareholders"

"From Muddy Waters we have learned that, in the short term, one can only effectively defend oneself to a limited extent against false claims and insinuations."

"Negative growth combined with high costs led to big losses, which peaked at $1.2 billion in one quarter, about half of what the whole company is worth today."

"Tough questions aren't often asked when companies can put up accelerating double digit revenue growth while delivering stable margin expansion along the way."

"Despite having the best rail franchise in North America, UNP has unequivocally been the worst performing Class I railroad under current eight-year leadership"

"Our estimates conservatively assume UNP only recaptures half the volume underperformance vs. US railroad peers that UNP experienced under current leadership."

"Service and operating metrics have deteriorated since Jim Vena's departure. Countless UNP customers have filed complaints to the STB about UNP's poor service"

"In September 2021, Pershing Square completed its acquisition of 10% of Universal Music Group from Vivendi at a negotiated equity value for UMG of €33 billion"

"We agree with Mr. Eisman’s comments on the current credit conditions and believe the market has not paid enough attention to Canadian Tire’s credit portfolio"