Callouts & quotes from 1,316+ activist slides

"Disney fails to set challenging financial performance targets (70% of annual bonus), including negative free cash flow targets in FY 2021 & 2022 and targets well below consensus estimates when comp plans for the year are made ('20-'23)"

"It is self-evident that Huue could only “leverage Ginkgo’s platform” if it’s plied with cash that will be recycled back as fictitious revenue, and we question whether it’s even an active startup or a carcass being exploited as a front."

"Disney fails to set challenging financial performance targets (70% of annual bonus), including negative free cash flow targets in FY 2021 & 2022 and targets well below consensus estimates when comp plans for the year are made ('20-'23)"

"On the surface, and taking management's headline numbers, everything looks great. But, cash flow is stalling out, while USCR's dependency on "adjustments" to engineer earnings growth rise. Q1'2018 results are showing significant strain"

"The amendments in this Update require that a statement of cash flows explain the change during the period in the total of cash, cash equivalents, and amounts generally described as restricted cash or restricted cash equivalents. — FASB"

"An efficient “low-cost” miner should be among the best in generating operating cash flow from its fleet. Riot screens as the worst among its closest peers while also among the worst when it comes to share dilution though ATM issuance."

"Given that over four-fifths of Capricorn's net asset value is comprised of cash and near-term contingent receivables, the terms of the Proposed Merger imply that Tullow is paying nothing for Capricorn's Western Desert assets in Egypt."

"At or around the current valuation, we believe Match should be using 75% or more of its free cash flow, plus some or all of the approximately $900 million of available capacity under its 3.0x net leverage target, to repurchase shares."

"Starboard believes the Series A Financing has no bona fide business purpose given the Issuer's substantial cash balance and was done solely to entrench the Board and "buy the vote" ahead of a potential election contest with Starboard."

"As a general long-term guideline, we expect to retain roughly half of our free cash flow... to support the growth of our business... and return the other half to our shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. — FY 2015 20-F"

"Note: Mettler does not disclose interest income in its consolidated results, making it difficult to sanity check returns on cash. The last time it disclosed interest income was in 1998, right before current auditor PwC took control(1)"

"Note: Mettler does not disclose interest income in its consolidated results, making it difficult to sanity check returns on cash. The last time it disclosed interest income was in 1998, right before current auditor PwC took control(1)"

"The Company has diluted shareholders at a rate of 20%+ p.a. and has generated negative cumulative free cash flow throughout its public history. This has resulted in just $0.53 cents of “Adjusted” EBITDA per share to existing holders."

"Cashpooling: The Company maintains a current account with BV Inversiones, S.L. to manage the group's treasury. These debts accrue market interest based on Euribor. — Bureau Veritas Inspected Y Testing, S.L.U. Financial Statement 2021"

"REIT investors ... consider AFFO a measure of "normalized" residual cash flow after eliminating non-cash and non-recurring expenses, and an indicator of a REIT's ability to pay dividends. — SEC complaint in the matter of VEREIT, INC."

"P&G is comparing apples and oranges by subtracting earnings of discontinued operations for historical periods while showing a benefit from share count reduction or cash proceeds from the sale or exchange of such divested businesses."

"We looked at 150 bankruptcies over the past decade to see if we could find any other examples of public companies entering bankruptcy with (i) positive cash flow before debt maturities and (ii) asset values in excess of liabilities."

"Spruce Point observes that Stryker has recorded in its income statement $419 million of inventory sold that was stepped-up to fair value since 2017. Stryker passes this through as a "non-cash" cost add-back to improve gross margins."

"Despite the CEO offering expectations of “winning” in Europe at the beginning of the year, we find that profits were down materially. Even worse, we find that Amcor’s cash pool swung from a surplus of €62.7m to a deficit of -€34.4m."

"It seems possible that as of 2018 at least, rent24 had been booking significant revenue without cash receipts – if that is a correct interpretation, seemingly the lack of cash flow would eventually become Vivion’s lack of cash flow."

"Leidos discloses that $166m of its cash is really earmarked for “outstanding payments” and are included within cash and cash equivalents. Market data providers use an incorrect and overstated cash amount to derive Leidos’ valuation."

"Where is the actual $5.6 million payment that was made in 2022? It is not recorded through the financing or investing section as related to the acquisition. Did it go all through the income statement and reduce operating cash flow?"

"athena wants everyone to back out the stock compensation because it’s a “non-cash” expense. Yet, it pays out cash taxes as part of its stock compensation scheme. At $28 million, that’s more than the company’s entire free cash flow."

"We estimate that Zillow's Adj. EBITDA growth since 2017 is comprised entirely of stock-based compensation. Zillow adds back stock-based compensation to Adj. EBITDA as a non-cash cost but uses cash to repurchase stock from dilution."

"Through accounting sleight of hand, a cash investment partially provided by Invesco, and a reverse merger into a soon-to-collapse U.S. nanocap led by a highly questionable CEO, BUR turned a loss at trial into a purported 195% ROIC."

"Adding a conservative $20 million in estimated cash legal fees incurred to date for this complex international litigation yields an ROIC that, while still impressive, is over seven times smaller than the 3,278% that Burford claims."

"Management plans to use all free cash flow after dividends to repurchase stock and will increase leverage to 1.8x Lease Adjusted Net Debt / EBITDAR from 1.6x. We estimate share repurchases will be ~$10bn to $13bn from 2012 to 2015"

"..there will be times when CLR may outspend its internally generated cash flow. However, so long as it is earning the returns on investment in the incremental barrel produced by these borrowings... this should be of minor concern."

"DND is a high-quality business with competitive products and cash flows of a similar quality to peers. However, it has significantly underperformed its benchmark indices and self-selected peer group over all relevant time horizons"

"We estimate that more aggressive tax maneuvers (i.e. discrete items) by BR in FY 2022 resulted in approximately $20.6 million of cash flow benefits. We believe there are long-term limits to how much lower BR can push tax benefits."

"A senior Genomatica employee told us clearly and unequivocally that they have never paid Ginkgo cash for foundry R&D services, and are simply using R&D credits provided after large investments by Viking and Ginkgo into Genomatica."

""The best measure to judge a company's performance over time is growth of free cash flow per share, and we believe that's what drives long-term value for our owners." — Rich Templeton, Chairman and former CEO of Texas Instruments."

"Seventeen acquisitions since Jacobs took control of XPO, $6.1 billion of capital deployed, and it has generated $73m of cumulative adjusted free cash flow = a failed business strategy yielding a 1.2% return on capital investment."

"When we carry the AKG's excess liquidity into 2018, and include the company's amortization of the loan and second phase of the wall pushback, we project the company has a cash shortfall ranging from -$43 million to -$129 million."

"Spruce Point cannot account for at least $294 million in milestone payments. As later illustrated, milestone payments for Mobius and OrthoSpace appear to have been made, but where are they flowing through the cash flow statement?"

"Data providers have taken Amcor's cash at face value and do not adjust, or at least discuss, the presence of bank overdrafts or legal deposits that might restrict cash. This leads to incorrect conclusions about Amcor's liquidity."

"Avery's NTM valuation relative to its closest materials and specialty chemical adhesive peers cannot be justified by Avery having higher free cash flow, or faster sales growth potential. It's dividend yield is also below market."

"We are concerned by the apparent divergence of cash costs related to capex and amounts recorded on the balance sheet within PP&E. Through 2023, the reported amounts reconciled, but in 2024 and 2025 it appears that they diverged."

"As investors watch yet another SPAC fail to deliver on lofty projections and with its cash balance burning away like a rocket with a fuel leak (which Astra has experienced), Astra shares will be left smoldering on the launchpad."

"Besides adding to the evidence that the real farm construction costs were a fraction of that implied by cash flow analysis, this farm project is significant as it is among those four transferred to an undisclosed related party."

"Amcor's financial control issues appear to extend to capital expenditures. Capex in 2018 was mysteriously revised lower, which lends further support to our opinion that its Adjusted Free Cash Flow cannot be taken at face value."

"The bull case has conducted no forensic work to identify evidence to suggest accounting manipulation of restructuring charges to hit numbers, material adverse risks to its tax policies, or reasons why free cash flow is peaking."

"WTRG cannot cover its dividend with free cash flow that money raised from investors through these programs could essentially be used to pay the same and other investors dividends, or "taking from Peter, to pay Peter and Paul.""

"BHP's c.US$19.9 billion of US onshore acquisitions has led to US$13.1 billion of write-downs, and negative pre-tax free cash flow(1) since purchase of US$9.4 billion for an asset currently valued by brokers at c.US$6.5 billion"

"Bunge may think it is a stable REIT by using FFO as a term and projecting ample “discretionary” cash flow. Based on our more conservative analysis, we see its discretionary cash flow as weak and not even covering its dividend."

"In another departure from conventional wisdom, Singleton eschewed reported earnings, the key metric on Wall Street at the time, running his company instead to optimize free cash flow. — William N. Thorndike, Jr., The Outsiders"

"“McDonald’s is a poor performing restaurant company in need of a turnaround” — Market perception (2002-2003). “McDonald’s is a global brand business with strong momentum and significant cash flows” — Market perception (Today)."

"Absent these extreme, and often repeated restructuring measures, Spruce Point estimates AVY’s Adjusted Free Cash Flow would be approximately $265m, or a 13% decline from 2019 – continuing its multi-year cash flow contraction."

"Absent these extreme, and often repeated restructuring measures, Spruce Point estimates AVY's Adjusted Free Cash Flow would be approximately $265m, or a 13% decline from 2019 – continuing its multi-year cash flow contraction."

"At a $36 share price (adjusting for ~$4 of equity value ascribed to the NWC at the Mall and International Stores), Borders would trade at 7x '08E EBITDA, 7.5x '08E EBITDAR and approximately 11x '08E Maintenance Free Cash Flow"

"In 2019 we completed acquisitions for total net cash consideration of $802 and $294 in future milestone payments primarily due upon the achievement of certain regulatory and commercial milestones. — Stryker 2019 Annual Report"

"Subsequent to the formation of the Joint venture the Company purchased £20,000,000 of Intellectual property from the IQE plc Group in return for 8,000,000 of A preference shares and £12,000,000 of cash. — CSC’s 2016 AR, p. 32"

""I think in your presentation, you guys had stated $110 million of free cash flow. Is that still kind of the target?" — Kevin Ellich – Craig-Hallum Capital Group; "Yes, that's right." — Joshua Proffitt – CFO & Treasurer, LHCG"

"AOL (assuming initial maximum leverage of 2.5x OIBDA or $4.8 billion) is projected to generate approximately $4.1 billion of free cash flow over the next three years and $7.6 billion of cash flow over the 2006 - 2010 period."

"To understand why NQ’s results were much worse than expected, investors need to realize that prior audits of the company were likely not as rigorous, and the extra scrutiny made it harder to fake profits and cash flow in Q4."

"Margins are already “industry leading” and yet Rollins is now talking about SG&A initiatives. With such strong cash flow, why is Rollins only now making these investments with the Rollins family and management selling stock?"

"Margins are already "industry leading" and yet Rollins is now talking about SG&A initiatives. With such strong cash flow, why is Rollins only now making these investments with the Rollins family and management selling stock?"

"The quick headlines are $3 billion of segment operating income by 2020, and free cash flow generation of up to $5 billion for shareholder return programs and debt repayment. — Richard Kramer, CEO of Goodyear (September 2016)"

"We believe Alpha's cash flow statement does not give an accurate view of its core cash flow because it includes divested businesses, and fails to capture the critical cost of operating the Dominion Terminal export facility."

"Free cash flow conversions, 125% in 2015, average for the last five years, 119%; so just stellar result. We did dip our toe in the water in 2015 on AR factoring, so that isn't 125%. If we take that out, we're still at 119%."