Callouts & quotes from 773+ activist slides

"We believe that DOX should not trade at a material premium to midcap technology and business process outsourcing (BPO) peers as a result of its opaque and complex structure, below avg growth, accounting and governance concerns."

"Phillips 66's choice of only looking at Lashier's tenure as CEO hides the fact that Lashier's stint as COO led to >50% relative underperformance vs. its refining peers, given poor operations during the "Golden Age" of refining."

"Phillips 66's choice of only looking at Lashier's tenure as CEO hides the fact that Lashier's stint as COO led to >50% relative underperformance vs. its refining peers, given poor operations during the "Golden Age" of refining."

"BP's peers such as Chevron and ExxonMobil are being much more realistic in their capital allocation: they plan to spend around 10% of their capex in the next five years on low carbon solutions, which compares with 30%+ for BP."

"Without a proper focus on Kao’s strongest brands, it is hard to believe that Kao has the same ‘right to win’ in the global marketplace as peers and its poor portfolio management will continue to act as a drag on a turnaround."

"As Phillips 66’s refining EBITDA eroded due to poor operating performance, the refining weight in its synthetic peer group dropped, masking the impact of Phillips’ underperformance against its core peers, Marathon and Valero"

"As Phillips 66's refining EBITDA eroded due to poor operating performance, the refining weight in its synthetic peer group dropped, masking the impact of Phillips' underperformance against its core peers, Marathon and Valero"

"PGNY is generally considered a technology laggard compared to its fertility benefit manager peers, which either have strong digital DNA given their recent founding or have sought to partner with leading technology platforms."

"Spruce Point believes it is customary for large and global U.S. public financial reporting peers to disclose how much cash and equivalents are held outside of the U.S. in foreign subsidiaries or permanently invested abroad."

"The Hyundai Motor Group is a brand recognized for quality: HMC and Kia have consistently outperformed their peers in the J.D. Power Initial Quality Survey ("IQS"), a testament to the superior craftsmanship of their products"

"To ensure that Crown Castle's management team is properly aligned with shareholders, we are recommending a revised incentive plan that encourages sound capital allocation and bridging the performance gap to industry peers"

"Despite having the largest revenue base in media, arguably the best IP, iconic studios, and multiple distribution channels, Disney's Media business ("Entertainment" and "Sports") significantly under-earns its media peers."

"Despite having the largest revenue base in media, arguably the best IP, iconic studios, and multiple distribution channels, Disney’s Media business (“Entertainment” and “Sports”) significantly under-earns its media peers."

"Phillips 66's refining assets are some of the best assets in their respective markets; the complexity, scale and flexibility of each refinery should allow it to better compete with peers Valero or Marathon in each region."

"While choices around insourcing vs. outsourcing impact headcount comparisons, BK also spends the greatest % of revenues on professional and outside service fees compared to other custody, asset management and G-SIB peers"

"Disclosures are varied and limited among peers related to inventory reserves and charges. However, it’s clear that reserves run closer to 3.0% - 4.0% and not 7.7% - 27.9% as illustrated by Mettler’s foreign subsidiaries."

"Despite our belief that Danimer’s selected peer group is not a strong representation of its business, Danimer trades at substantially higher multiples that its self-selected peers on a projected revenue and EBITDA basis."

"How is Billy Taubman, Taubman's Chief Operating Officer, supposed to provide an independent review when the Company's operating performance - which he is responsible for - massively underperforms its Class A Mall Peers?"

"We Believe That Viacom is Significantly Undervalued Relative to its Peers and Assets and Can Deliver Material Returns Over The Long-term For Its Shareholders With Changes Made to its Leadership and Board of Directors"

"Compared to its DTC peers, FIGS allocates nearly all fulfillment and distribution expenses to the operating expense line items, instead of COGS. This results in FIGS gross margins being overstated relative to peers."

"Marathon has excelled since it took bold actions to improve operations and governance, resulting in a ~150% relative share-price outperformance versus its peers Phillips 66 (NYSE: PSX) and Valero Energy (NYSE: VLO)."

"We analyze the annual capex reporting as a percent of its Gross P&E relative to a diversified set of aggregate and building material peers and find USCR to be a significant outlier when adjusted for capital leases."

"Genius currently trades at a premium to peers on a sales and EBITDA multiple basis while generating significantly lower margins than peers and below average projected revenue growth to online gaming and B2B peers."

"Disney's EPS performance has significantly underperformed its self-selected “media industry” peers in both "new media" (e.g., Netflix, Alphabet) as well as traditional media (e.g., Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery)"

"Disney's EPS performance has significantly underperformed its self-selected “media industry” peers in both "new media" (e.g., Netflix, Alphabet) as well as traditional media (e.g., Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery)"

"As Phillips 66 acquired midstream assets at dilutive multiples, and management and Board focus has shifted away from refining, underperformance vs. Phillips 66's core peers (Valero and Marathon), has accelerated."

"As Phillips 66 acquired midstream assets at dilutive multiples, and management and Board focus has shifted away from refining, underperformance vs. Phillips 66's core peers (Valero and Marathon), has accelerated."

"The $581 million downgrade of Nkran and Esaase was largely offset by upgrades to satellite pits that relied in part on increasing the assumed gold price to $2,000 / oz., which is way out of line with AKG’s peers."

"As Phillips 66 acquired midstream assets at dilutive multiples, and management and Board focus has shifted away from refining, underperformance vs. Phillips 66's core peers (Valero and Marathon), has accelerated."

"Even if P&G is unable to achieve its underlying earnings potential, we believe there is little downside in the stock as it trades at a discount to peers, despite having the largest cost opportunity in the sector"

"Spruce Point’s proprietary rating of MSCI ESG rating is “F”. We believe there are many areas where MSCI can improve to raise its rating to become a better governed and respected company among its industry peers."

"After working with Elliott, Marathon Petroleum's Board and management acted decisively to create a more focused and efficient organization. Marathon stock has dramatically outperformed its peers since mid 2019."

"Spruce Point believes that C3 might look optically cheap relative to high growth data and AI peers, but that C3's revenue estimates are too high, and lie on a shaky foundation with a related-party Baker Hughes."

"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."

"Rarely has Spruce Point witnessed such competitive intensity among peers. Wise has launched a social media campaign and provided tools on its website to allow potential customers to compare value propositions."

"Crown Castle’s underperformance is especially disappointing based on our view that its U.S. tower portfolio has more attractive characteristics than its peers and is better positioned for the 5G upgrade cycle"

"The result has been extreme shareholder value destruction and sustained share price underperformance versus peers - despite Avantor having a higher mix of recurring revenue and defensive consumables exposure."

"D&D is currently trading at a significant discount to its peers, based on FY2024 consensus EBITDA estimates. Illustratively, at the peer median of 19.2x EV / FY2024 EBITDA, D&D would trade at $71.54 per share"

"Over a more relevant five-year time horizon, Phillips 66 has underperformed both refining and midstream peers, with the underperformance especially stark after adjusting for midstream's lower cost of capital."

"In our opinion, analysts incorrectly believe Aerojet is cheap by comparing it with overvalued “small cap” A&D peers, none of which even compete within its rocket propulsion or missile defense market segments."

"FND's inventory accounting is called "moving weighted average cost method" and appears to be some hybrid of the method used by Lumber Liquidators and Tile Shop, which are both embattled and struggling peers."

"If Kornit received a multiple closer to printing and computer equipment peers, and our concerns about Amazon come to fruition, it's easy to justify a price target of $4.50 – $9.30 or 75% – 85% downside risk."

"Phillips 66 underperformed the average of core peers Valero and Marathon by 8%, 32% and 97% over 1-year, 3-year and 5-year periods, respectively – no amount of statistical manipulation can change this fact."

"As a standalone entity, SSgA could be better positioned to close the margin gap versus peers, receive a multiple re-rating over time, and may have significant strategic value to other industry participants."

"Phillips 66 underperformed the average of core peers Valero and Marathon by 8%, 32% and 97% over 1-year, 3-year and 5-year periods, respectively – no amount of statistical manipulation can change this fact."

"~400 bps of improvement in MDLZ margins, bringing them in-line with diversified food peers (but well below snacks peers), would yield ~$1.4bn in incremental EBITDA (potentially worth ~$16bn to shareholders)"

"Ferguson's North American footprint is >2x the average of the specialty distributor / broadline peer group but only 1 US based research analyst covers the stock (vs. an average of 14 analysts for its peers)"

"Even recognizing that FIGS is projected to grow sales 26% in 2022, it still carries a substantial premium to peers despite our documented concerns around management and its exaggerated financial reporting."

"We believe FND trades at an irrational premium to peers and that sell-side expectations are too high. Where we differ the most is new store operating expenses which we estimate are set to rapidly increase."

"Stryker's allowance for bad debts, a contra account to accounts receivables, has been steadily growing and is now above 5% of gross receivables - notably larger than close peers Zimmer Biomet and Medtronic"

"The under-performance of Bob Evans over the last 5 years has been even more pronounced, as the Company has under-performed all selected publicly-traded family-dining restaurant peers by as much as 150.5%."

"If we illustratively assume TheFork is sold at 5x CY26E revenue, similar to peer transactions, it would imply Tripadvisor trades at just ~4.5x EBITDA on a pro forma basis, an even larger discount to peers"

"In a world where Saputo has been expanding beyond Canada, and into the US, Europe, and Australia/Asia, it appears that its employee cost structure is not competitive with its global dairy-producing peers."

"If we illustratively assume TheFork is sold at 5x CY26E revenue, similar to peer transactions, it would imply Tripadvisor trades at just ~4.5x EBITDA on a pro forma basis, an even larger discount to peers"

"At a minimum, industry leading FMCG companies should achieve normalized gross margins of over 45%. Currently, we estimate Consumer Products Gross Margins remain below pre-Covid levels and far below peers."

"If volume growth accelerates to UNP's potential, we believe investors will reward this higher growth with a valuation more in line with UNP's Canadian peers and other high-quality US industrial companies"

"Investors should be alarmed that unlike most of its peers, Samsara does not provide the most basic level of transparency on key performance indicators such as net subscriber additions and customer churn."

"We believe Intuit will see a material multiple de-rating over time, and thus we expect the shares to underperform those of its software peers, the technology sector, as well as the broader equity market."

"It is therefore not surprising that Nevro and its peers appear downright paranoid about doing any long term studies, preferring to cease evaluation at the 3-12 month mark lest they blow up reimbursement."

"Spruce Point believes that ROAD's disclosures of its aggregate reserves are inadequate to fully access the risks of owning its shares or its valuation relative to peers that do disclose such information."