Callouts & quotes from 1,434+ activist slides

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012 to 2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 IR, March 14, 2024; "Q: ...[W]hen you look at the differences... between Wall Street and that $14 billion, where do you think the biggest delta still are? Is it chems? Is it refining? A: The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook..." — Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012 to 2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 IR, March 14, 2024; "Q: ...[W]hen you look at the differences... between Wall Street and that $14 billion, where do you think the biggest delta still are? Is it chems? Is it refining? A: The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook..." — Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

"“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."

""[We] designed our mid-cycle methodology around the 2012 to 2019 time frame. You had cycles of strong margins and weak margins during that period of time." — Phillips 66 IR, March 14, 2024; "Q: ...[W]hen you look at the differences... between Wall Street and that $14 billion, where do you think the biggest delta still are? Is it chems? Is it refining? A: The biggest delta is in refining and well below mid-cycle refining environments baked into the '25, '26 outlook..." — Mark Lashier, January 7, 2025"

"BR lists its number #1 driver of Non-GAAP operating income margin is from “Scale and Natural OpEx leverage from a SaaS business.” However, Spruce Point does not believe that BR is a high-quality SaaS business, if one at all, given it admits it drives no pricing power and does not report metrics consistent with other SaaS companies such as Net revenue dollar retention or remaining performance obligation, and has just $414m of deferred revenue in relation to $3.7 billion of recurring fee revenue."

"We’ll also continue to improve gross margins. The Company’s current gross margin is about 52%. We can earn a higher total company margin by achieving best-in-class margins in more categories and business units. Based on industry benchmarking, we believe that only about half of P&G businesses have gross margins better than their competitive peer set. As we get more of our businesses to best-in-class levels, we’ll increase our total company margin. — A.G. Lafley, Former CEO 2007 Annual Report"

"“So on the other hand, what I would also say, the major advantage of our new structure is that it gives us full transparency on where we stand with our profitability on a stand-alone basis for our businesses... And this, of course, got blurred in the past because people were looking at the integrated margin. This is over. We will look at stand-alone margins. And I think personally, this will be a very big lever to improve profitability.” — Thomas Toepfer, CFO of Covestro, September 2021"

""Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past three years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability." — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; "Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds." — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"“We will improve gross margin by optimizing our data center footprint, public cloud infrastructure and the cost to serve our customers. In addition to the data center migration that we've discussed over the past year, we'll be driving efficiencies in various aspects of delivering our service such as storage, search and conversion. We also expect more of our business to come from add-on products, which will naturally drive higher margins.” — CFO Dylan Smith, Q3 FY2020 Earnings Call"

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability... — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/ commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds. — BMO, November 30, 2023"

""[TWC's] strength as the second largest US cable system operator, with strong operating trends, healthy liquidity and strengthening credit metrics." — Moody's. "the cable TV business is gaining subscriber units with its digital video and high-speed data services. Capital needs of this business should remain relatively stable, but video programming costs and new-service rollout costs are likely to hamper meaningful improvement in OIBDA margins over at least the near term." — S&P."

"Under CEO Mike Hennigan, MPC has shown the most visible improvement among their peers over the past 3 years in both reliability, unit cost and profitability... — Scotiabank, June 30, 2023; Marathon has been our top refining pick since initiating on the group in June 2022. Shares have led peers, driven by cost/ commercial improvements and peer (and energy sector) leading capital returns, funded by strong refining margins and Speedway divestiture proceeds. — BMO, November 30, 2023"

"We expect to earn a full year 2021 adjusted EBITDA margin of 23.7 percentage to 24.1 percentage. The above outlook includes our anticipation that our troughs of service as a percentage of revenues will remain roughly flat. We also expect to incur full quarter public company costs and a small increase to operating expenses as we increase our investments in our digital and innovation capabilities. And prepare for our teammates to return to the office. — CFO Sekar, Q2'21 Conf Call"

"“Basic PK – since the half-life of Pitolisant is approximately 20 hours about half the drug levels will be circulating when the 2nd dose is administered so this is added to the new peak plasma levels on Day 2, and again on day 3, day 4 etc., until steady state plasma levels are reached... Thus, the QTcT study is intentionally misleading, and the statements made about safety margins are therefore overestimated and incorrect.” — Pharmacology consultant engaged by Scorpion Capital"

"Generac's press release fails to address that it acquired the business from Caledonia Investments, a public investment vehicle listed in the UK. Caledonia acquired the business from its founders, who cashed out in October 2018. The business was sold for £162 million ($213.1 million). Generac's press release also failed to disclose it paid $420.7 million, or a 97% valuation increase, for a business that barely grew revenues and showed margin deterioration in the past few years."

"Really? Interesting. I hadn't noticed that. You have to understand how the revenue is being generated. Since there's a packaged offering, you may see there is a price negotiation. There could be situations where the programmatic revenue might be shifting from pre to post. The growth might be slowing but being shifted around. I believe the margins from the programmatic partnerships are higher, I would say so, yes. — Spruce Point Interview On The Cease of Disclosure April 2023"

"August 25, 2022: The Securities and Exchange Commission today charged Granite Construction, Incorporated and its former Senior Vice President, Dale Swanberg, with fraud for inflating the financial performance of the major subdivision Swanberg managed. In 2021, Granite restated its financial statements from 2017 through 2019 to correct revenue and profit margin errors allegedly caused by Swanberg's misconduct. The company agreed to pay $12 million to settle the SEC's charges."

"WD-40 upgraded to Buy from Neutral at DA Davidson. DA Davidson analyst Linda Weiser upgraded WD-40 to Buy from Neutral with a price target of $225, up from $194. The analyst is citing the company's more attractive valuation following an 8% decline in the stock price from March highs. Weiser adds that if oil prices stay depressed for 60 days, WD-40 could see gross margin upside surprises in the second half of the year along with the expansion of its multiple. — TheFly"

"This begs three questions: 1) What is the value proposition of the Taexx system if homeowners don't even realize they have the system installed as a home buying benefit, 2) If conventional pest control sales were 90% of the business, and HomeTeam D2D marketers were successful, why does Rollins need Fox's marketers to push the use of Taexx, and 3) If HomeTeam's margins are well below corporate average, why is Rollins pushing investment in lower margin business?"

"“I think while Applied Water and Water Infrastructure segments have scale in these commodity businesses, they are in solid shape and not huge investment, but I think the challenge with Xylem overall is how do you get margin expansion when you have two large segments where there is not a lot of margin expansion potential in those businesses. That is the biggest question; can you get growth and margin expansion faster then the market?” — Former Xylem Executive"

"“one way of getting the good stuff, so to speak” — Mass General physician; “the transplant administrators...they’re addicted to the volume”; “if we can increase our lung volumes by, say 40 lungs...we’re a tier one OPO and that’s how close the margins are as far as being in compliance.”; “if I do 10 transplants, one or two deaths can shut down the program...but if I do 100, then I have a lot more leeway...the money is funny money.” — Transplant surgeon, Utah"

""What we have done with the Board is we said, listen, now is a perfect time for us; we are out 120 days. Let's look at all of our margins and see if there are areas we could get a lot more effective. So, leaning a process out from early days of design to where it might be today, leveraging technology that was not available perhaps in the past, using our capital appropriately for that technology I think is important." — Steven Anenen, CDK Global, Former CEO"

""UniFirst continues to lack a detailed, cohesive, publicly-articulated strategy for returning the business towards mid-single digit % revenue growth and high teens % EBITDA margins. We have written in the past that UniFirst's decision to reject Cintas' unsolicited takeout offer 'puts the shortest route to maximum shareholder value creation in the rearview mirror.' Today's results suggest that the alternative path may prove bumpy and winding." — J.P. Morgan"

""And under the watch of Bill Caesar really done a great job of putting in multiple disciplines with that business in transforming that business really over the last 7, 8-years." — Patrick Dovigi, GFL CEO. "disjointed operating footprint and lower margins" — Moody's. "WCA will likely experience significantly lower organic volumes during the second quarter and potentially even later on, which could cause total revenue to contract for the full year." — S&P."

"MagnaChip recognized revenue on sales of incomplete or unshipped products...and delayed booking obsolete or aged inventory to manipulate its gross margin. The SEC detailed how Magnachip “overstated revenue for nearly two years in response to immense pressure...each quarter to meet revenue and gross margin targets that had been communicated to the public...a panopy of accounting tricks to artificially meet financial targets.” — SEC press release, May 2017"

""As a leading integrated downstream energy provider with differentiated but complementary assets in highly attractive markets, we deliver consistent and compelling value for shareholders throughout economic and commodity cycles." — Phillips 66 Management, Phillips66Delivers.com; "[We're] having less volatility than refining peers when refining margins flex to the downside, so we get the best of both worlds." — Phillips 66 CEO Mark Lashier, March 6, 2025"

"They [bankers] walk around the Street... they're looking for some sucker to take paper on a non-controlling passive basis. I mean, you look around the room, who are you going to call? It's not like Annapolis [HASI's headquarters] is a destination location for money-raising. So, I just felt like that was marginal and these are widely shopped deals that other more informed investors wouldn't take because of the low yields. — Former HASI Executive A"

"Q: If the margins on this business are so good, why is this company exiting the business? A: It's not exiting. It's relocating its business to Shandong province. Q: Why aren't they moving the equipment? A: It feels its better to buy new equipment in Shandong. Q: But presumably this is expensive equipment if ONP is paying around $13 million. How could buying new equipment be more sensible than transporting it? A: I don't know. — Narrator/Mr. Yen"

""So there are a lot of benefits of separation. It really does allow a level of focus and a level of scrutiny in specific areas that you might not have as part of a broader conglomerate. And furthermore, we really get to optimize things for us specifically versus a broader organization. And so part of the reason we're going to be able to expand margin are some of the benefits of becoming a stand-alone company." — GE HealthCare (January 9, 2024)"

"I could definitely see that happening...I get a lot of phone calls and texts from people around the country saying...do you think I should use it...what should I do...I get a lot of those texts and calls...[from] new users and people with less experience using marginal organs that they know we're using...a good word to describe the company is top-down aggressive...there's no question.... — Transplant surgeon at a high-volume academic center"

"We also expect to have lower equity earnings associated with the ULA business as a result of the number and mix of launches expected in 2019 compared with 2018.... The largest single item that is driving the margin reduction next year, though, is actually our ULA equity earnings. Those are actually going – we expect those to be down nearly $150 million or so from this year's estimate of the equity earnings from ULA. — LMT Q3'18 Conf Call"

"We believe that GFL is relatively better insulated from COVID-19 volume declines due to a significant portion of its revenues coming from residential customers and fewer landfill assets which translates into less decremental margins. We continue to see a pathway for GFL to improve its margins and FCF every year over our forecast period, driven by still strong pricing, cost rationalization, and a larger solid waste footprint. — JP Morgan"

""We think that MHP could evaluate a potential sale/spin of the Education segment (22% of MHP profits). We view the Education properties as relatively low growth (LSD) and low margin (essentially 10-15% since 1995) — which put it at odds with much of S&P Ratings, M-H Financial, and Platts. Education has also struggled in recent years amid tough times for local/state budgets, and lagged competitor Pearson." — J.P. Morgan, August 1, 2011"

"MagnaChip recognized revenue on sales of incomplete or unshipped products...and delayed booking obsolete or aged inventory to manipulate its gross margin. The SEC detailed how Magnachip “overstated revenue for nearly two years in response to immense pressure...each quarter to meet revenue and gross margin targets that had been communicated to the public...a panoply of accounting tricks to artificially meet financial targets.” — SEC"

"“Yes. So on Matrox, again you mentioned it, about $100 million portfolio today. The gross margin and operating profits are accretive overall to Zebra but not quite to where some of the other public companies in the space are at. So again, we think that's, again, a great opportunity for us to grow and expand margins with -- across our machine vision portfolio over time as the business scales.” — CFO Winters, JPMorgan Conf. May 2022"

""So when our marketing team is thinking, hey, do we increase or decrease some of our, call it, paid search or digital channel investments, they're not looking at the average customer acquisition cost. They're looking at the marginal, meaning that next dollar spent, either higher or lower, and seeing what the return on is -- on that marketing dollar is. And so I think that's a big part of our secret sauce." — CEO GS Conf Sept '24"

"“...we benefited this past quarter from a continued spike in our component MDI. We said in our third quarter call that we believe we benefited by approximately $40 million of extra margin due to this temporary spike...We believe that the fourth quarter benefited by approximately $85 million due to these constraints. We believe that these one-off conditions will abate...” — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, February 2018"

"“...we benefited this past quarter from a continued spike in our component MDI. We said in our third quarter call that we believe we benefited by approximately $40 million of extra margin due to this temporary spike...We believe that the fourth quarter benefited by approximately $85 million due to these constraints. We believe that these one-off conditions will abate...” — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, February 2018"

"So there are a lot of benefits of separation. It really does allow a level of focus and a level of scrutiny in specific areas that you might not have as part of a broader conglomerate. And furthermore, we really get to optimize things for us specifically versus a broader organization. And so part of the reason we're going to be able to expand margin are some of the benefits of becoming a stand-alone company. — GE HealthCare"

"“As you move clients off of the legacy platforms onto the new platforms across all your client segments, do you ultimately get a margin benefit?...” — Rod Bourgeois, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. “...[P]art of the reason we're moving our clients to common platforms is to eliminate costs that today are being really used to maintain old legacy platforms that aren't focused on innovation.” — Carlos Rodriguez, ADP President & CEO"

"We’re a very simple compensation structure: sales gross, margin, cash from operations and EPS [been] like that for years, 25% each. That’s for our annual bonus. By having those four, particularly gross margin, it creates financial literacy within the company. Given all employee bonus[es], and when one component is gross margin, the natural thing to ask is what’s gross margin and how do I get it? — CEO DB Conf June 11, 2019"

""For the Lab Products & Services Division, Sartorius now anticipates that due to the softer economic environment, the lower range of the division's sales forecast of about 5% to 9% will be reached. The division's underlying EBITDA margin is expected to be just below 20% (previous guidance: slightly above 20%), with the operating increase accounting for about half a percentage point" — Sartorius Guidance Cut 7/19/2019"

"Documents show Waterpik’s gross margins were 47.7% - 49.1% pre-acquisition, and the CFO said he expected 200 - 300bp gross margin expansion. Fast forward to early 2019, the CFO’s recent comment that gross margins are now “on par” with the company’s gross margin (pre-tariff), indicate that margins have contracted lower in this product line closer to 44% - and this even after price increases announced in Q3 2018!"

"“We are investing in our data center infrastructure and Box consulting ahead of our customers' needs. We are also incurring excess real estate expenses as we prepare to move into our new Redwood City facility, temporarily paying rent on 2 locations. Once we complete this move in Q4, we will resume our gross margin trajectory upward in our long-term 75% to 80% range.” — CFO Dylan Smith, Q2 FY2016 Earnings Call"

"It is because Shopify and Square give free hardware. Lightspeed is going to have to change, and they are going to have to give away free hardware. They are still using printers that haven't changed in the last two and a half decades. When you look at the decrease in software ARPU and take into account the negative margin on the hardware, ARPU as a whole has dropped significantly. — Former Lightspeed Employee"

"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"

""It is because and Square give free hardware. Lightspeed is going to have to change, and they are going to have to give away free hardware. They are still using printers that haven't changed in the last two and a half decades. When you look at the decrease in software ARPU and take into account the negative margin on the hardware, ARPU as a whole has dropped significantly." — Former Lightspeed Employee"

"2010 Year End Call: “Going forward, we do anticipate year-over-year gross margin improvement, partly resulting from our focus in our manufacturing operating model.”; 2011 Year End Call: “For gross margins, we are calling for the underlying range to remain steady, with a subtle, favorable bias subject to the variations driven by currency, business mix and global operations investments” — Stryker Corp."

"The Phillips 66 refineries are every bit as good as the Valero, Marathon refineries. I think that the logistics, product placement capabilities of these refineries, the high-margin product capabilities of some of these refineries is outstanding. And there's no reason why these refineries, why this refining system, these assets can't match up with the competitors, Valero and Marathon. — Brian Coffman"

"The Phillips 66 refineries are every bit as good as the Valero, Marathon refineries. I think that the logistics, product placement capabilities of these refineries, the high-margin product capabilities of some of these refineries is outstanding. And there's no reason why these refineries, why this refining system, these assets can't match up with the competitors, Valero and Marathon. — Brian Coffman"

"They can assign different values to different modules.... They may be assigning a really low book value to modules to show, like, a 35% EBITDA margin on that module, and a really high book value to the part, [spare parts for consumption not resale] because, you know, they don't need to make money on parts. They don't get the valuation for the company out of it, right? — A former senior FTAI employee"

"In one meeting with three FGD executives from an FGD producer, we mentioned that RINO generates 35% gross margins. The result was comical. Each face registered palpable surprise (not quite shock), which then became expressions of confusion as they turned to each other while asking “35?” After a couple of seconds, the confusion subsided and was replaced with slight nods and barely perceptible grins."

"Unlocking McGraw-Hill’s long-term conglomerate discount would result in ~$11 of value; Eliminating McGraw-Hill’s corporate cost structure would contribute ~$6 of value; Execution of McGraw-Hill’s authorized buyback would create $3.50 of immediate value; Bridging the remaining margin gap with McGraw-Hill’s peers (gap after collapsing the corporate structure) would create an additional ~$4 of value."

"“I’d be asking management how much of sales is being driven by new products? You’re investing all this money in R&D. Where is it in the portfolio from the perspective of growth, share gain, and profitability? And in sustainable products, none of that fetches a higher margin. It’s good for the world and the environment, but is it helping your margin; I don’t think so.” — Former Avery VP For 7 Years"

"And we see that probably as maybe better than some of the other news in the distribution space largely because of the levers that we can pull still around price optimization and as importantly, around our exclusive brands. Those products have dramatically higher margins than our average and they continue to grow at a much, much faster rate than the overall business. — CFO Trunzo, Q4'23, Feb 2023"

""We took a $30 million impairment charge on the Reveal Imaging acquisition, reducing the overall margins by 1.2%. While Reveal and the engineering products business are our most profitable, we did not ship nor expect to ship enough units near term of Reveal units to produce the financial results necessary to support the purchase valuation a couple of years ago." — SAIC Q2'2014 conference call"

"“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"

""Our compensation-to-revenue ratio came in at 34.8%. This is the low end of the range of what we have been running for the last several years. We have been running in the 35% zone. It is down almost a half point from our 2009 margin and really is consistent with our focus of realizing the benefits of beta flowing through to our shareholders." — Larry Fink, BlackRock Earnings Call (1/25/2011)"

"“I've said this many times before, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the TiO2 industry as much as this is a business that when you start looking at the core performance, if you look at Huntsman without TiO2, we would be going into 2016 here...with some of the highest margins we've ever had in our history and with better than GDP growth.” — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, April 2016"

""But even without the growth of more MDI -- crude MDI, we're continuing to take the crude MDI that we're selling into the market...and moving that into our formulation and downstream system houses as aggressively as we can. And that will be the area of the business that we'll continue to see the growth in the margin expansion going forward." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, July 2017"