Callouts & quotes from 2,092+ activist slides

"During fiscal 2018, we generated $43.3 million in cash from operating activities compared to $59.1 million in cash generated from operating activities in fiscal 2017. The decrease was primarily a result of higher cash uses for income tax payables, accounts payables, accounts receivables and inventory. The decrease was partially offset by higher comparable net income, additional depreciation and amortization expense and deferred revenues and customer advances. — Mercury Systems FY 18 10-K, p. 41"

"I would categorize Dropbox revenue growth as mid-growth (~20% YoY top-line growth). The interesting part is in the net income and free cash flow. The Company has guided to $1.6 billion revenue in FY19. If we apply a 20% growth rate to FY20, that would imply a ~$1.9 billion revenue. If we take management estimates of $375m of free cash flow, it would imply ~20x forward EV/FCF, below high growth profitable peers that routinely trade at 50x EV/FCF. — Seeking Alpha, "Finding Value in SaaS, Jan 2020"

"The IMT segment includes the financial results for the Premier Agent and rentals marketplaces (including StreetEasy rentals product offerings) as well as Other IMT, which includes our new construction marketplace and revenue from the sale of other advertising and business technology solutions for real estate professionals, including display, StreetEasy for-sale product offerings and ShowingTime+, which houses ShowingTime, Bridge Interactive, dotloop and interactive floor plans. — 2022 10-K"

"We're committed to achieving a $1 billion run rate sometime in FY '21... and I know you guys can all do the math, but if you take the outer edge of that and look at $250 million of revenue in Q4 of that year, that would be a 23% compounded annual growth rate. So we expect to be growing at least that fast over the next few years. And in terms of how that breaks down, we're expecting our existing customer base to drive the majority of this growth. — CFO Dylan Smith, BoxWorks, September 2016"

"Other expenses that are not directly attributable to a particular segment are based upon allocation methodologies, including time estimates, revenue, headcount, sales targets, data center consumption and other relevant usage measures. Due to the integrated structure of MSCI's business, certain costs incurred by one segment may benefit other segments. A segment may use the content and data produced by another segment without incurring an arm's-length intersegment charge. — MSCI SEC filings"

"“Dongfang Trading Co. Ltd in the most recent two years almost doesn't have any revenue,” the aforementioned tax bureau insider informed me, “It's just like a shell company.” — Tax bureau insider; “My ownership was withdrawn in 2004,” Liu Zhen Yong responded. — Liu Zhen Yong; “Li Jian Jun comes from Beijing”, “This is a Beijing company”, and “Apart from this company, we have suppliers from other places such as Beijing.” — Liu Zhen Yong; “Some people have ulterior motives.” — Liu Zhen Yong"

""I know because of the NVIDIA connection. I have to tell you, they have flat revenues for the last three years – sounds a little like SoundHound. I'm going to take a pass on that one." — Jim Cramer. "While we appreciate the opportunity to be featured on Mad Money and understand the fast-paced nature of the program, ZJK has achieved more than 33% average annual growth over the past three years which is far from ‘flat’ by any financial metric, as Mr. Cramer suggested," — ZJK CEO Ning Ding."

"As our business grew rapidly and substantially, it made perfect sense to start building our own distribution capabilities, i.e., an in-house advertising platform. The benefit of owning an in-house advertising platform is not only enhanced monetization efficiency as we can improve advertising technology for better matching of supply and demand which results in higher average revenue per user ( ARPU ), it also allows our business to become independent and obtain long-term viability. — QTT"

"The Company stated that: "Ending Q1 2011, there were 401 Patches above $2,000 per month in revenue..." We arrived at our cost estimates for Patch of $160 million in 2011 based on the following statement by the Company's Chief Financial Officer at the AOL Investor Day on June 16, 2011: "...we're going to spend $160 million a year this year on Patch..." Further, in a research report published on May 10, 2012, Barclays estimated that Patch generated EBITDA losses of $151 million in 2011."

"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"

"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."

"We expect Demand Manager revenue to exceed $5 million in 2020. — MGNI CEO, Q4 2019; From a revenue side, I think we're not formally updating our guidance. But we -- there's a big enough hole here that we don't expect to hit those levels this year. — MGNI CFO, Q2 2020; We thought that it was going to be long sales cycle to begin with or a long path to maturation for Demand Manager. Think about it, we're competing against the free product. — MGNI CEO, Stephens Conf, Nov 19, 2020"

"While our termite business has been growing by double digits for several years in a row now, termite damage claims as well as any related to litigation have declined year-by-year reaching our lowest level in recent history during 2021. To be more specific, termite damage claims received have declined from a high of 9,349 to the low of 380 new claims received this past year, while at the same time, revenue from termite has tripled. — Wilson, Vice Chairman, Q4 2021, Jan 26, 2022"

"Spruce Point believes that ELF’s valuation is supported by its above market revenue growth. This revenue is highly dependent on its retail channels through Target, Walmart, and Ulta Beauty along with continued appeal with mostly female Gen Z consumers. To the extent that ELF receives pushback from these customers related to its association with Movers+Shakers and its perceived messaging and association with the NXIVM cult, there could be material downside to the share price."

"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."

"The errors and certain irregularities primarily related to the timing of recognition of (i) revenue, (ii) expenses related to certain inventory used for engineering and marketing purposes and (iii) expenses related to defective products under warranty not returned by customers. Additionally, errors were identified whereby the Company had derecognized inventory while control over such inventory was retained because the Company was obligated to buy it back. — SMCI SEC filings"

"It’s all a question of what Time Inc.’s revenue growth potential is and how they see their business model evolving, and how stable are Time Inc.’s revenues going forward...Can Time Inc. be a killer brand online? If not, they’d better figure out ways to harvest cash from cost-cutting...the Company’s publishing division was among the least integrated with TWX’s online businesses, especially AOL — Richard Greenfield, Fulcrum Global Partners (quoted in The New York Times)."

""The notion that a decade from now, universities are going to be paying half or two-thirds of their revenue for some marketing and tech services is ridiculous." — John Katzman, founder of Noodle Partners and 2U; "It amazes me that higher education leaders would chose to partner with an OPM like 2U. 2U demands that their university partners use the 2U LMS [Learning Management System] platform and this is NOT an advantage." — A Tipping Point for OPM?, Insidehighered.com"

"On face value, Aerojet's revenue and earnings growth are comparable with industry peers. This forms the basis that its valuation is also in-line or at a discount with peers. However, Spruce Point believes that Aerojet's enterprise value does not accurately reflect numerous liabilities, its financial results are inflated with aggressive accounting, and its projected financial results will materially disappoint the Street “consensus” view formed by just a few analysts."

""Some of our biggest differentiators include the fact that over 90% of our products is made from the same fabrication and more than 50% of our revenue is generated by our core styles in core colors." — Spear on Q3 2021 Earnings Call; "It's a pretty simple business...[they] have one distribution center in the US that serves the entire US market and Canada...they're stuck for better or worse with that core customer." — Former Executive Interviewed by Spruce Point"

"Maxar’s 2017 Annual Report: “Consolidated revenues were $1,631.2 million in 2017 compared to $1,557.5 million in 2016. Revenues increased due to the inclusion of DigitalGlobe revenues of $221.6 million for the period October 5, 2017 to December 31, 2017 and from higher revenues from contracts with the U.S. government and other customers to supply spacecraft and perform design studies for scientific research and development missions.” — Maxar 2017 Annual Report"

""We will have, by next year, $8.5 billion revenues..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, May 1, 2015; "Well, I mean we've shown you also in the Investor Day..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, January 11, 2016; "And I mean, as I said before, there is a ramp-up curve that we are seeing in the second half..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, July 11, 2016; "And currently, on the airframe components side, we're going through a phase of destocking..." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, October 11, 2016"

"Reflexis is a high-growth, recurring-revenue business with sales of $66 million in 2019, which doubled over a 3-year period. We've known each other for quite a long time. Reflexis has been a premier ISV partner of Zebra's. And we've been in dialogue with them about this transaction for some time. And in terms of customer concentration, Jim, the asset has a low level of concentration of sales towards a few customers. — Former CEO and CFO Q2'20 July 28, 2020"

""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."

""US telehealth revenues, will jump from $174.5 million last year to $707.9 million in 2017," and "the United States leads telehealth growth worldwide, and has 75% of the world's telehealth patients" — IHS, Feb 2013. "The World Market for Telehealth has yet to reach its tipping point. Poor implementation, low reimbursement levels, and lack of physician support are some of the barriers that have held telehealth penetration at a slow rate." — IHS, Dec 2013."

"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"

"Spruce Point believes that consensus estimates for future aspiration catheter revenues are not analytically robust. Yet, as with most companies, the market interprets these estimates as a good indicator of future sales, and as perhaps the most educated, rigorous, and analytically complete assessment of future performance. Accordingly, we believe that Penumbra shares are currently valued according to estimates which likely feature a high degree of error."

"While impressive on the surface, Samsara’s historical revenue ramp has been the result of opportunistic targeting of a one-time government mandate, an accounting sleight of hand, the beneficial impact to revenue recognition of customer financing, and the aggressive practice of buying out existing customer contracts (an extremely expensive technique for buying business that we believe is not appropriately captured in the Company’s financial disclosures)."

"2018: “Revenue from the consumer market decreased $5.6 million, or 3.0%, from the same period in 2017. This decrease was primarily due to softness in demand for high volume consumer-related products, particularly those sold in the greater China region.” 2017: “Revenue from the consumer market increased $36.0 million, or 23.4%, from the same period in 2016. This increase was primarily driven by higher demand in gaming and home appliance products.” — MPWR"

"I think there’s a lot of window-dressing with Grossman and that’s why you’re not seeing this big uptake in revenue. If Omnia is so good and you’ve got a hundred more reps out on the field and you’re doing all this great selling and all these customers are happy, why is it not going up? They’ve eroded their price. Nobody’s going to buy Omnia, unless you’re getting paid a couple thousand bucks to be put in a study to use it. — Senior Nevro ex-executive"

"Our strong order backlog provides us with good long-term revenue visibility... We still firmly believe that four times leverage is the most efficient capital structure that we can put together going forward, that provides us with the lowest overall cost of capital, we are very confident about the visibility of the cash flow to service this as well as providing the capital for all the programs that we have — CFO Wirasekara Q1'17 Conf Call (May 2017)"

"The other key observations from our derivation of estimated Live metrics are that (1) Consumer segment revenue grew faster before the launch of Live (FY 2016-2018) than it has over the past three years (FY 2022-2024), suggesting Live's massive revenue growth may just be fueled by cannibalization of non-Live revenue, and (2) Consumer segment revenue growth ex-Live is very modest, we believe calling into question the sustainability of the franchise."

"We are upgrading shares of Plug to Buy (from Neutral) as the company passes an inflection point. We expect valuation to be driven by visibility for Plug continuing on impressive revenue growth trajectory, outlook for record revenue and EBITDA in 4Q19, and material EBITDA profitability in 2020. The outlook for 2020 where we forecast material EBITDA production of $35.5m suggests Plug is clearly passing an inflection point. — Sell-side analyst report"

"Analyst: ...is that net of the legacy attrition that you could be losing in another contract? So I'm just trying to understand, are those net wins? Kay Meggers, EVP GRP: These are the numbers for those respective contracts. Analyst: ...are you giving us sort of a number that is additive to your revenue or could there be some attrition from the loss of the last contract? Kay Meggers, EVP GRP: [T]his is the gross number.... — Kay Meggers, EVP GRP"

"Spruce Point believes Mako’s robotic surgical platform is one of the few growth drivers in Stryker's overall lackluster product portfolio and could be over $1 billion of annual revenues. However, we believe that sell-side analysts and investors are not attuned to the fact that Stryker recently cut prices on Mako’s product suite by -17% to -30% in response to companies like Zimmer, which have been giving their system away at no upfront cost."

"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"

""Second, our goal has been to diversify our revenue outside of the United States and this acquisition increases our international revenue for this business by a factor of 6 and expands customer penetration into 75 additional countries. At the consolidated level, the acquisition adds an additional three points of international revenue bringing our total for the company to approximately 13% international revenues." — CEO M&A Call Feb 2020"

"We believe the Street is structurally misunderstanding the magnitude of the cybersecurity-related costs that Mercury will face going forward, as well as the delays in revenue contract award opportunities it will face in its high-growth “command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence” (C4I) segment – expected to be a $100m business. Mercury does not even have a CISO at present, and only recently replaced its departed CIO."

"The Audit Committee concluded that Dan Bodner, Verint's Chief Executive Officer, or any other current executive officer of the Company, did not participate in unlawful activities or wrongful conduct. Nevertheless, the Audit Committee did note that the product revenue management practices described above, while not unlawful or violative of accounting principles, were not best business practice and should be remedied. — VRNT 03/20/08 8-K"

"Almost no career opportunities, non-existent training, terrible technology infrastructure, and overly bureaucratic. The fact that there is actually a committee to oversee other committees that set internal policies kind of says it all. Unimaginative senior management that is always reacting to competition. Bloated middle management while underinvesting in products, services, and line employees that actually drive revenues. — Glassdoor"

"As a result of performing the above, we identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following area, and our specific procedures performed to address it are described below: Revenue recognition (topside journals posted to revenue): Using our analytics tools we performed an analysis over the top topside journals posted to revenue near to year end and obtained the rationale and corroborative evidence for such journals. — Deloitte"

"A significant portion of UOL's revenues and profits come from dial-up Internet and DSL access services and related services and advertising revenues. UOL's dial-up and DSL Internet access pay accounts and revenues have been declining and are expected to continue to decline due to the continued maturation of the market for dial-up and DSL Internet access, competitive pressures in the industry and limited sales efforts — UOL Disclosure"

"Box is one of the most predictable models in all of software. All right. So when we think about Box at $1 billion scale, we expect that the customers that we already have today are going to contribute more than 75% of that revenue. So those best-in-class customer economics and the trends we're seeing are the biggest reason that we're so confident in our path to becoming a $1 billion company. — CFO Dylan Smith, BoxWorks, October 2017"

""Let's address customer momentum. We expanded and extended our strategic partnership with Baker Hughes last quarter for the second time. . .This October, we increased the value of the contract again, this time by an additional $45 million to $495 million and extended this term from five to six years. Importantly now guaranteeing a minimum of $357 million in revenue to C3 over the next 3.5 years." — CEO Siebel, 2Q'22 Conference Call"

"Revenue base is almost entirely recurring subscriptions with attractive retention rates — Deal presentation. A portion of RCA's client agreements do not have automatic renewal clauses at the end of the subscription period. Due to the historically high retention rate and expectation that a substantial portion of the client agreements will be renewed, the associated revenue is recorded as recurring subscription revenue — SEC filings."

"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"

""It is but the problem we have is that without segmenting those two numbers you don't get a good feel for the actual revenue being generated. The reporting of the number is meant to give a sense of how much money goes through their systems, but you can not drive value directly from that without understanding what the split is between the technology provisioning and the actual first full service acquiring." — Former Nuvei Employee"

"Exploration licenses are amortised over the shorter of the term of the license and their expected useful economic lives. All licenses recorded as at 31 December 2019 have a license term of 9 years. A full impairment charge was made in 2013 as no revenue arising from the licences have yet been agreed or forecast with sufficient levels of certainty. — UK Seabed Resources Limited 2019 Annual Report filed at the UK Companies House"

"In June 2019, the Company entered into multiple agreements with Baker Hughes Company ("Baker Hughes") under which Baker Hughes received a three-year subscription to use the Company's software. These agreements were revised in June 2020 to extend the term to five years and modify the subscription fees due. Under the revised agreements, Baker Hughes has made minimum, non-cancelable revenue commitments... — SEC Filings Disclosure"

"“There’s probably 120 global physicians that represent the majority of Nevro’s total revenue. If each of those guys is doing, like a mega Nevro guy doing 70 to 100 devices a year, that’s like $300 million. The number of physicians doing more than 40 implants a year would surprise you. It’s a very small number.” — Former Nevro executive; “90% of implants are still done by the top 10% of doctors.” — KOL and high volume implanter"

"“The last set of initiatives that we took you through several years ago, the $1 billion to $1.5 billion in EBIT this year, are paying off.” — CEO Bob Jordan, October 2023; “... About $1.5 billion in incremental year-over-year pre-tax profit from our network optimization efforts and the contributions from our portfolio of strategic initiatives, is driving us to expect additional revenue records.” — CEO Bob Jordan, January 2024"

""The last set of initiatives that we took you through several years ago, the $1 billion to $1.5 billion in EBIT this year, are paying off." — CEO Bob Jordan, October 2023; "... About $1.5 billion in incremental year-over-year pre-tax profit from our network optimization efforts and the contributions from our portfolio of strategic initiatives, is driving us to expect additional revenue records." — CEO Bob Jordan, January 2024"

""We have identified and are currently reviewing certain customer transactions for which revenue was recognized and reported in the consolidated financial statements of Stratus Technologies International, S.à r.l. for fiscal 2004 and the first quarter of fiscal 2005... the consolidated financial statements... should not be relied upon as an accurate reflection of our financial results for these periods." — Stratus Technologies"

"“The last set of initiatives that we took you through several years ago, the $1 billion to $1.5 billion in EBIT this year, are paying off.” — CEO Bob Jordan, October 2023; “... About $1.5 billion in incremental year-over-year pre-tax profit from our network optimization efforts and the contributions from our portfolio of strategic initiatives, is driving us to expect additional revenue records.” — CEO Bob Jordan, January 2024"

"“The last set of initiatives that we took you through several years ago, the $1 billion to $1.5 billion in EBIT this year, are paying off.” — CEO Bob Jordan, October 2023; “... About $1.5 billion in incremental year-over-year pre-tax profit from our network optimization efforts and the contributions from our portfolio of strategic initiatives, is driving us to expect additional revenue records.” — CEO Bob Jordan, January 2024"

"“The last set of initiatives that we took you through several years ago, the $1 billion to $1.5 billion in EBIT this year, are paying off.” — CEO Bob Jordan, October 2023; “... About $1.5 billion in incremental year-over-year pre-tax profit from our network optimization efforts and the contributions from our portfolio of strategic initiatives, is driving us to expect additional revenue records.” — CEO Bob Jordan, January 2024"

""Then we realized that the numbers were overstated in several markets by 15% to 20%." It turned out that some florists who were transferring orders to other shops had reported total sales, and not just their commissions, as revenue. -- Greg Royer, Director. "There was a huge Bermuda Triangle between corporate management and the mom-and-pop retailers who didn't know what P&L; and EBITDA are." -- Karen Akin, Apples to Zinnias."

"Interest revenue is earned on term loans originated and purchased and held for investment in accordance with the specified period of time and defined interest rate noted in the loan contract. Interest revenue is recorded net of amortized direct origination costs and is included in service revenue in our consolidated statements of operations. Interest revenue was not material for all periods presented. — Intuit FY 2024 10-K"