Callouts & quotes from 3,960+ activist slides

"“Valuation Our YE24 remains $38, based on a sum-of-the-parts analysis. Our SOTP assumes a YE24 net contracted earning assets per share of ~$7, plus ~$30 in value per share for future deployments based on an assigned 13x multiple to expected contracted value creation in FY25 (PV7.5) less incremental financing. We believe the stock is undervalued, and we expect it to outperform the mean of our coverage over the next 6-12 months.” — Anonymous Analyst"

"“We believe our focus on nutrition and botanical science and our efforts at combining our internal research and development efforts with the scientific expertise of our Nutrition Advisory Board and the educational skills of the Nutrition Advisory Board and the resources of the UCLA Lab should result in meaningful product differentiation and give our distributors and consumers increased confidence in our products.” — 2011 Herbalife Annual Report"

"The ex-Nevro district manager’s comments reveal the severity of what we believe the company has covered up: that “sort of every KOL was saying the device isn’t working”; that sales reps across the country came to the same conclusion; the company refused to acknowledge the situation and blamed the reps instead; and that he personally couldn’t look customers “in the eye and ask them for visits anymore, because I didn’t believe in the therapy.”"

""Chris has had a solid track record of success in achieving operational excellence and financial performance. Given Chris's significant leadership skills and relevant industry experience, we believe he is the ideal choice to drive improvements in the business and further develop our brand while delivering a consistently superior customer experience for all existing and prospective customers." — John J. Anton, Chairman of WireCo, May 15, 2013"

"“...we believe a peer group should range from 0.5 to 2 times the market capitalization of the Company. In this case, Glass Lewis has identified 16 peers outside this range, which represents approximately 80% of the peer group.” — 2011 Glass Lewis proxy paper on AOL; “Shareholders need to be satisfied that the peer group is appropriate and not cherry-picked for the purpose of justifying or inflating pay.” — 2011 Glass Lewis proxy paper on AOL"

"We have conducted on the ground due diligence in China and believe that Ballard’s Chinese growth ambitions are likely to fail from weak partnerships with Broad Ocean and Synergy, and a market that is not developed enough to support fuel cell vehicle growth; Déjà vu, Ballard’s last China deal with Azure resulted in a contract breach and revising guidance lower in early 2015; investors should brace for similar disappoints this time around too"

"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."

""These independent directors agreed to join our board, because they believe in our outstanding plan, and they recognize that our plan is the right plan for all of our shareholders. We have had this strategic transformation, as my remarks noted, underway, really going back...since I became Chairman...In fact, Elliott got on the train after it really left the station...This is a culmination of a multi year strategy..." — John Hess, March 2013"

"“So I'll end my remarks on where I started with wanting this slide to be emblazoned in your mind. Again, as I look at the 4 steps that I think get this company another $20 to $30 a share, I think that these are all eminently doable... And more importantly than anything I can say up here, I'm obviously not only have I drank the Kool-Aid, but it actually tastes great, and I'm a believer.” — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO, May 2018"

"Over the course of his nearly two decades as an institutional investor, Mr. Loeb has developed a sophisticated understanding of how to create and unlock long-term value for shareholders. As Chief Executive Officer of the Company's largest shareholder, Mr. Loeb would advocate vocally for stockholders' interests if elected to the Board. For these reasons, we believe Mr. Loeb is exceptionally qualified to serve as a director of the Company."

"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"

""[T]he outsiders (who often had complicated balance sheets, active acquisition programs, and high debt levels) believed the key to long-term value creation was to optimize free cash flow, and this emphasis on cash informed all aspects of how they ran their companies – from the way they paid for acquisitions and managed their balance sheets to their accounting policies and compensation systems." — William N. Thorndike, Jr., The Outsiders"

"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."

"We have received investor feedback advising it would be best for us to eliminate the related party obligations, expenses, balances, and reporting associated with Cuattro since 2013. The Transactions address these concerns and are in the best interest of our stockholders. We believe the Transactions will eliminate distractions and allow us to more strongly focus on our collective success in 2019 and beyond. — Scott Humphrey, Heska Chair"

""Ultimately we believe that the measures that TI has announced so far look sensible and put the company on track for improving trends." — Credit Suisse, February 27, 2019; "We have met TI management on the road, feedback from investors so far on the new CEO is positive and that he comes across well." — BAML, February 27, 2019; "Telecom Italia boss Luigi Gubitosi is sending the right signals." — Lisa Jucca, Reuters, February 21, 2019"

""We cannot prove it. But we cannot rule it out." — CEO Dennelind (to OCCRP). "We have been as open as we believe is possible. There are many factors we need to take into account in order to act wisely and constructively," — Ms. Ehrling. "In a crisis situation such as BP’s Gulf of Mexico spill (or TeliaSonera’s corruption coming to light), company attorneys tend to counsel publicly disclosing as little as possible." — Lord Browne."

"“We ... do not believe the shares will be appropriately valued under the current corporate structure. A difficult decision to spin off its downstream businesses could ultimately be the key.” — Dahlman Rose, September 2012; “Our vertical integration -- producing aluminum, rolling aluminum, and engineering unique and specialized products for our customers -- is a huge advantage.” — Dr. Kleinfeld, China Hands Magazine, July 1, 2013"

"“...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"

"The purpose of this letter is to specifically outline the following two important opportunities that we believe the Board and management team should pursue in order to unlock value: (1) An exploration of all strategic alternatives for the underperforming Family Dollar business, including an outright sale; (2) An evaluation and initiation of a wide-scale market test of a multi-price point strategy at Dollar Tree bannered stores."

"Warning: Oatly regularly touts its good corporate citizenship to the environment. In its 2019 Sustainability Report, it hinted that its growth was placing strains on its short-term ability to improve its environmental footprint, but pledged to “make things right again” with various improvements. However, Spruce Point believes that it has back-tracked on this pledge. We find that it has unremedied EPA violations for over a year."

""How do you measure success? The answer is right here. We launched in the US and within 9 months there was a national oat milk shortage. It's cool but not cool because you want to supply that. We believe the truth about the underlying cause of the shortage is much more grim and a function of management's ineptitude and the harmful side effects of producing oat milk." — John Schoolcraft, Oatly's Creative Director of Mind Control"

""As we look to fiscal '19, we believe there is a unique opportunity to deliver value to our stakeholders beyond M&A by returning capital to shareholders through the announced $50 million share repurchase. We see this as an incremental way to add shareholder value without inhibiting our long-term ability to invest in brand building, delever and pursue future M&A opportunities." — Christine Sacco, CFO, Q4 2018 Call, May 10, 2018"

"A full 87% of [Deutsche Bank conference] attendees believed that if the vote were to occur today, Dell’s existing bid would be voted down — Deutsche Bank Securities research October 21, 2018; In many ways, the IPO alternative seems suboptimal for both sides — Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., research note October 5, 2018; The Biggest Winner of Dell's Public-Market Return? Michael Dell — Bloomberg Deals, July 2, 2018"

"While the Registrant still believes ACV is a leading indicator of revenue opportunity in existing clients and new clients, we believe the disclosure of the metric may imply a certainty in our actual results that does not correspond to the level of estimation inherent in the metric. Thus, we removed the metric as we do not consider it to be meaningful to investors given the risk of misinterpretation. — SEC Response Letter"

"“because everybody is like, how is it possible that some of these hospitals are doing so many TransMedics? Because financially, it’s not possible to do too many...usually you tend to be believe that centers that use the device a lot – maybe they have some incentive to use it that much...Houston, maybe...Henry Ford, maybe....” — Transplant surgeon and division chief of the liver program at a world-renowned academic center"

"“because everybody is like, how is it possible that some of these hospitals are doing so many TransMedics? Because financially, it’s not possible to do too many...usually you tend to be believe that centers that use the device a lot - maybe they have some incentive to use it that much...Houston, maybe...Henry Ford, maybe....” — Transplant surgeon and division chief of the liver program at a world-renowned academic center"

"Yeah. Now to be sure, I have seen companies who I thought were very aggressive just in their tax basis. I couldn't name names, but I've seen some pretty aggressive stuff... I believe at least one of them, it's sort of an open secret in the industry that I've heard from a couple of tax lawyers, at least one of them is going through a whole series of audits right now. — Interview with Former RUN Executive B, November 2021"

"“We’d obviously welcome a substantive turnaround plan from Southwest... In our opinion, bona fide turnarounds often include meaningful changes in network composition, fleet overhauls, and revisions to business models. Management turnover is sometimes a component, as are changes in pricing philosophy... Unfortunately, we don’t believe Southwest is eager to meaningfully engage in such changes...” — J.P. Morgan, April 2024"

"“We’d obviously welcome a substantive turnaround plan from Southwest... In our opinion, bona fide turnarounds often include meaningful changes in network composition, fleet overhauls, and revisions to business models. Management turnover is sometimes a component, as are changes in pricing philosophy... Unfortunately, we don’t believe Southwest is eager to meaningfully engage in such changes...” — J.P. Morgan, April 2024"

"“A very small company. I think they wanted it to work, and they want to believe it works. And, that was not my immediate reaction to what I saw...the person [who ran] clinical development also felt the same way...we were disappointed to not see what we were expecting and reacted accordingly. No matter how you slice and dice it, the data is there the way it is.” — Ex-Soleno employee #2, key role in clinical trial program"

"“We’d obviously welcome a substantive turnaround plan from Southwest... In our opinion, bona fide turnarounds often include meaningful changes in network composition, fleet overhauls, and revisions to business models. Management turnover is sometimes a component, as are changes in pricing philosophy... Unfortunately, we don’t believe Southwest is eager to meaningfully engage in such changes...” — J.P. Morgan, April 2024"

"It is important to note that, to our knowledge, this data is known to very few market participants: it is designed for and provided primarily to the health care industry. Our understanding is that it is known to few, if any, sell-side brokerage firms. We believe that the market is generally blind to this data, and that prices of Penumbra shares must adjust to reflect this powerful, credible, and compelling information."

"Starboard believes that Mr. Lacey’s experience in the senior management of public companies, including service as chairman, president, chief executive officer and corporate vice president, his experience on the boards of directors of public companies, his financial expertise and his direct knowledge of the component manufacturing and camera module business, will enable him to provide invaluable oversight to the Board."

"We’d obviously welcome a substantive turnaround plan from Southwest... In our opinion, bona fide turnarounds often include meaningful changes in network composition, fleet overhauls, and revisions to business models. Management turnover is sometimes a component, as are changes in pricing philosophy... Unfortunately, we don’t believe Southwest is eager to meaningfully engage in such changes... — J.P. Morgan, April 2024"

"Great brands define markets. As a leading branded consumer products company, Heinz must make marketing and innovation its core competency... Trian believes Heinz should reduce the amount that it currently spends on deals and allowances (20% of gross revenue) and reinvest those funds in creative consumer advertising, innovative new products and packaging and cross-marketing initiatives — Trian White Paper: May 23, 2006"

"“We’d obviously welcome a substantive turnaround plan from Southwest… In our opinion, bona fide turnarounds often include meaningful changes in network composition, fleet overhauls, and revisions to business models. Management turnover is sometimes a component, as are changes in pricing philosophy… Unfortunately, we don’t believe Southwest is eager to meaningfully engage in such changes…” — J.P. Morgan, April 2024"

"Attention all TEFL & ESL teachers looking to work abroad teaching in China...SinoEdu is a Chinese chain school that also uses the alias brand of SinoJ or Sino J. Do not believe anything they tell you even if they put it in your contract. They exploit foreigners and do not pay what they promise and force you to work unpaid overtime. If you dare to complain they threaten to get you — Warning posted on April 2, 2018."

"We value REZI as if it were two separate business using the valuation multiple implied by the trading comps on the previous slide. We believe that the businesses should trade at a discount to peers given lingering legacy operational and financial reporting issues, along with growing complexity from recent M&A. We see 25% - 50% downside risk and expect REZI to underperform the technology and home services sectors."

"Practically speaking, we believe it is a stretch to call the new fecal analyzers a new piece of diagnostic equipment. In reality, the veterinary staff are still required to undergo a sample preparation process that must be done correctly to ensure accurate test results, and the equipment is actually just an automated microscope that uses algorithms to scan the slide for pre-determined image evidence of parasites."

"I would tell you that during Q2, Mako sales were quite robust. And we supported our customers through a variety of financing options. And then lastly -- the last bit of color I'll say is that just given the circumstances, we definitely are seeing a shift to financing more deals than we have historically experienced, and I fully believe that, that will continue throughout the rest of this year. — Q2 2020 Conf Call"

"After observing problematic restructuring accounting adjustments and financial presentation methods that we believe artificially boost Adjusted EPS and Free Cash Flow (two of the three key components of management Annual Incentive Plan), we observe that Avery Amended and Restated the Annual Incentive Plan on Jan 1, 2020 to greatly expand language around the clawback provision for fraud or intentional misconduct."

"Shareholders need to be satisfied that the peer group is appropriate and not cherry-picked for the purpose of justifying or inflating pay. In general, we believe a peer group should range from 0.5 to 2 times the market capitalization of the Company. In this case, Glass Lewis has identified 10 peers outside of this range, which represents approximately 62.5% of the peer group. — Glass Lewis, Hess Proxy Paper 2011"

"“The bottom line is that there is no compelling valuation opportunity in separating our retail business, and that any potential separation will cause loss of integration synergies, additional cash needed to maintain appropriate balance sheet strength, increase volatility in the remaining business, and, we believe, result in long term value disruption.” — Gary Heminger, Former Chairman & CEO of Marathon Petroleum"

""We believe the new BDC (ACAP) will have inferior returns relative to peers because it has lower asset yields and a higher cost structure. As a result we believe this investment will continue to trade at a deep discount to its book value" — KBW Research Note, November 9, 2015; "We apply an 80% book value multiple to the net assets of American Capital Income" — Cantor Fitzgerald Research Note, November 9, 2015"

"“We note that Alcoa acquired Firth Rixson in November 2014 for a purchase price of $2.85 billion, which compares to our estimated EBITDA exit rate for 2015 of $190 million. Alcoa thus far has not backed away from guidance of $1.6 billion in sales and $350 million in EBITDA for 2016; however, we believe these targets are not attainable and are modelling much lower growth rates.” — Credit Suisse, March 10, 2016"

"We are conducting this election contest now during the pendency of the OfficeMax Merger because we strongly believe it is in all shareholders’ best interests to reconstitute the Board with new, highly qualified directors that have the requisite skill-sets and experience to dramatically improve the operations of the business and transform the Company for the future, whether as a stand-alone or merged company."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside to TASK's share price as the Company is overvalued on both its revenue and EBITDA multiple 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 including substandard disclosures, and evidence of increased financial pressures with its largest customer Facebook."

"“There are no plasma concentration curves to actually compare it meaningfully to preclinical data. I have never seen this before when researching any approved clinical agent... the lack of data in this regard is a huge red flag given that 2D6 is the primary p450 involved in the elimination of pitolisant – it’s hard to believe it was approved without this.” — Pharmacokinetic expert engaged by Scorpion Capital"

"CEO Demarco Q3'16: “At these estimated production levels, we believe the potential market opportunity for Gremlin type aircraft is in the high several hundreds of millions of dollars up into billions of dollars” — Eric DeMarco. CEO Eric DeMarco: “It is very competitive, I am sorry, I did not talk about it in the script and I am not talking about it anymore. It's focus time. So, I apologize.” — Eric DeMarco."

"“I do belong to the camp where I think there is clear space for a product that is oral and has the tolerability that we believe our TYK2 agent has and has a efficacy that is comparable to biologics to carve a really important space in the market. And we do look at that opportunity as a really meaningful opportunity for us.” — Giovanni Caforio, Chairman & CEO, Guggenheim Partner Oncology Day, February 2019"

""We believe a separation of our retail business from the remainder of Valero by way of a tax-efficient distribution will create operational flexibility within the businesses and unlock value for our shareholders... As independent companies, both retail and the remaining business will be better-positioned to focus on their industry-specific strategies." — Bill Klesse, Valero Chairman and CEO, July 31, 2012"

""They did 140% (total volume) recently. Having said that, even though I really believe in Philip, Nuvei and SafeCharge, I think it (volume growth) will now go a little bit down. They had the pitch and utilized the services, products in the background, Nuvei on the high risk in the states. Now they find a place where they have to start competing in the less risk markets." — Former Nuvei Employee Interview"

""in terms of the numbers, it's less material. So, that's why we didn't refer to it. It's relatively a small company at this stage, but we believe that together with the breadth of the customers' opportunity that we have that we acquired through Vubiquity now, the opportunity is significant moving forward to create those synergies. But it will take some time naturally." — Tamar Rapaport-Dagim, CFO, Amdocs"

"Most importantly for the near-term future, we believe that Dexcom faces a particularly steep revenue growth cliff of at least ~18 months as the rate of incremental U.S. T1 CGM penetration decelerates, as the Libre 2 competes directly with the G6 at an ~80% discount, and as the Company fails to make traction in the T2 market without a down-market CGM offering until late 2020 / early 2021 at the earliest."

"Ironically, AOS is covered by small regional U.S. stock brokers, many which do not have a physical presence in China. Thus, we believe their ability to have on the ground and up-to-date intelligence on the key aspect of AOS’s China business may be limited. It does not appear that analysts have come to grips with the broken nature of the China business, and many hold out hope for 20% upside in the stock."

""Boustead Securities, rightly so, insisted on lockups for all the existing shareholders and the option holders and warrant holders, et cetera. There were a few people released from their lockups. But we still have, I believe it's in excess of 95, 96 percent of the entire pre-IPO group of shareholders that are locked up for a minimum of six months and more likely for closer to a year." — Mr. Menerey, CFO"

"Bunge’s historical EV / Revenue multiple averaged 0.35x before the Viterra deal was rumored in May 2023. We believe that the combined Company’s fundamentals have weakened since food consumption trends have changed and Bunge has reported lost market share in certain regions and segments. As a result, we believe Bunge’s new multiple should be structurally lower than its historical trading multiple range."

"Rather than engaging in a multi-year public battle – a process that will inevitably end with representatives chosen by common stock shareholders being elected to the Board at the Company’s contested 2028 annual meeting – we believe it would be far more constructive to work together now, add a shareholder representative immediately, and focus on maximizing the value of the Croatti family's life's work."

""If in fact prescriptions exceeded the supply cap and lacked state authority, I believe the DEA administrator will revoke Truepill’s DEA registration," — Ronald Chapman II. "I think that the industry is a really good target for some pretty strict regulation. Thanks to Cerebral, when the DEA investigation finally concludes, I suspect that'll happen." — Spruce Point Interview With Former HIMS Executive."