Callouts & quotes from 1,508+ activist slides

"Our suspicion is that like Zhonghuan, BEKE grossly overpaid for a questionable business in order to hide fake cash, a balance sheet problem created by BEKE’s gross overstatement of its revenues."

"Part 3. Revenue is dependent on a handful of transplant surgeons/centers - "prostitutes" who are "completely owned and operated by TransMedics" - who allegedly receive kickbacks and inducements."

"OPO’s and transplant centers are standardizing around an inexpensive, alternative technique which has long been the standard of care in Europe, with TransMedics 2025 revenue at risk of collapse."

"Spruce Point estimates that for the first time since coming public, Remitly's transaction margin, or the difference of revenue per send volume and transaction expense per send volume, declined."

"Positive sales momentum has culminated in rising consensus revenue estimates for mall-based retailers. Wall Street is now forecasting 2.6% and 3.5% revenue growth in 2010 and 2011, respectively"

"The company forecasts revenue will grow to $1.4 billion by 2024E, with half of that coming from full-EV and heavy-duty vehicles upfits that don't exist yet, which we view as typical XL bluster."

"Spruce Point believes that increased competition amongst platforms and consolidation amongst agencies will force Momo to lower virtual gift retention and increase cost of revenues going forward"

"BLI 2021 guidance of $90-100MM requires all-time record revenue in Q3 and Q4 – an implausibly sharp spike from a flat trend. "Back half weighted" is the usual canard of companies about to miss."

"This factor, along with REZI now signaling that third party services are being used to develop products, suggests to us that any revenue uplift from new product introductions is likely to slow."

"As AMT has not hedged its currency risk we believe that this could cause further devaluation of revenue and assets in the future and will most likely lead to AMT performing below expectations."

"Monster does not say what the revenue contribution from these purchased customer relationships is which suggests that its organic revenue growth could potentially be challenged and overstated."

"If that number he cited was inclusive of the franchises, which constitute 55% of Firstleap's centers but generate little revenue, then the deferred revenue overstatement is even more hideous."

"There are numerous examples of accounting errors and scandals tied to misestimating revenues and costs with long-term projects, especially in the Communications, Aerospace and Defense sector."

"The lack of clarity about which entities contribute what revenue and operating profits to each product group gives rise to our suspicions that Nidec manipulates its product group disclosures."

"By comparing the public filings of IQ and Wuhan DDMC (Xin’ai’s parent company) we conclude that the deferred revenue recorded by IQ is fraudulent and no non-cash contribution actually exists."

"BR has long touted its recurring revenue retention rate. However, we observe it last referenced this figure in its SEC filings in October 2020 and in an Investor Day slide from December 2020."

"The Medtronic regional manager stated that Nevro “lost all of that revenue” from their launch and that “all of [the doctors they poached] are done with Nevro. They won’t even listen to them.”"

"These numbers are beyond belief when compared to the $35 million to $40 million in digital advertising annual revenue that AMCN generates at Beijing Capital Airport for the following reasons:"

"If current 2024 consensus estimates prove to be accurate, this would mean that GoDaddy missed its implied 2024 targets from the Investor Day by over $500 million in revenue, over $100 million"

"Goodyear’s product warranty costs are ~40% below Michelin and Bridgestone’s as a percentage of revenue, which speaks to the quality of its manufacturing assets and skill of its employee base"

"It suggested that most or all of the company’s revenue in Q3 and for 2021 came from only 2 and 3 customers respectively – a troubling contrast to the CEO’s claim of “thousands of customers.”"

"Spruce Point is concerned that Xylem would acquire Evoqua at such a large premium given a recent SEC charge for materially misstated revenue and an ongoing federal investigation by the USAO."

"The market is expecting sequential revenue growth of 12.3% in Q1 2021, and increasing in each subsequent quarter to 23.4% in Q4 2021, for total YoY revenue growth of 62.7% in full-year 2021."

"Essentially all of Celgene’s marketed products portfolio is small molecule drugs, and therefore they are likely to experience significant revenue deterioration as they lose patent protection"

"When aggregated and compared to IQ's F-1 prospectus, we found that the deferred revenues reported to the SEC were overstated by 261.7%, 165.5% and 86.2% in 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively."

"WebMD generated revenue through advertising (essentially what we view as medical clickbait) and sponsored content for pharma, biotech, medical device, and other healthcare related companies."

"Even under more conservative estimates regarding the inorganic sales contributions of recently-acquired businesses, management is guiding to very limited organic cloud revenue growth at best"

"There has been a noticeable decline in LSPD’s long-term deferred revenue mix. The Company also no longer discloses that upfront payment contract election triggers a deferred revenue balance."

"Box has an offering that is stickier than most SaaS products, but has not been as effective in converting Sales & Marketing dollars into bookings & revenue growth or sales rep productivity."

"If AMR is over-reporting production, there is a strong possibility its revenues and coal inventories are overstated. Overstated inventories can also to overstated margins and profitability."

"Revenue commitments from Baker Hughes were reduced by $40m for FY23 as disclosed in C3's 2Q'22 10-Q filed on December 2, 2021, yet we believe revenue estimates do not reflect this revision."

"Taxpayers’ economic ownership of the GSEs is greater than Treasury’s 79.9% common stock warrants because the government is also entitled to significant tax revenue from their future profits"

"Normally, we wouldn't feel it was necessary to remind investors of basic business disclosure found in a Company's SEC filings, but investors are ascribing Heska a 9x 2022E revenue multiple."

"Sipex's shares fell >70% post disclosure of an investigation into revenue restatement. Revenues were restated 35% lower and gross margin was revised from -8.9% to -24.8% or 1,590bps lower."

"While there could be an innocent explanation for this, we believe this illustrates the hundreds of dials Eurofins could turn to create revenue and expenses were senior management inclined."

"If PowerSchool was previously ignoring discounts in reporting its revenue, this could suggest that previously recorded revenue has been overstated and future revenue growth may disappoint."

"According to this expert's words, the Company's revenues were in the range of $4 to $8 million in 2018. This is substantially lower than the $12 million of revenue Oatly recently reported."

"However, after subtracting Blackout Bingo’s revenue from the top three games’ total revenue, we estimate that Tether’s top two games sequentially declined by -5.9% sequentially in Q3 2020."

"Even then, claiming that the business was generating quarterly revenue “in the forties” was a sizable mischaracterization, even when taking only the assets acquired by Amdocs into account."

"ULA is a material customer to Aerojet, accounting for 17% of revenues in 2018. Based on recent commentary from Lockheed Martin (LMT), ULA's earnings are expected to decline by 47% in 2019."

"Spruce Point finds it interesting that management restructured this lease agreement just as new lease accounting standards permitted it to recognize associated revenue and profit up front."

"While Enfusion's recent 2024 revenue and Adj. EBITDA guidance came within market expectations, its new Free Cash Flow (FCF) conversion guidance implies a shortfall of FCF vs. expectations."

"No US magazine launched by Publishing after 2000 has made a material impact on the revenue of the division and none are among the top 300 magazines in the US as ranked by Advertising Age."

"No US magazine launched by Publishing after 2000 has made a material impact on the revenue of the division and none are among the top 300 magazines in the US as ranked by Advertising Age."

"Despite acquiring five companies which generated a reported ~$140 million in aggregate total revenue between 2021 and 2024, Limbach ended 2024 with revenue ~$50 million below 2020 levels."

"During his employment period, Surgalign had an accounting scandal which resulted in a multi-period financial restatement and resulted in revenue recognition fraud allegations by the SEC."

"These users were connected to YY-controlled PUs, and the group of associated accounts paid out more in gifts than Xiaozhou received, indicating revenue inflation coming directly from YY."

"Our analysis indicates an alarming result: 2021 acquisitions contributed more Adj. EBITDA than revenue despite management claiming that Fetch, the largest deal of the year, was dilutive."

"Revenue has remained substantially flat since 2001, with AOL reporting revenue of $8.6 billion for the year ended December 31, 2001 and $8.7 billion for the year ended December 31, 2004."

"By excluding slower-growth businesses from core revenue, management gives itself the ability to report higher core growth than it otherwise would – up to 300 bps higher in some quarters."

"The lack of deferred revenue and cash transfer reinforces our view that TAL was merely parking GZ 1-1 at Changing Edu with no intention of actually relinquishing control of the business."

"In a real business earning revenue the old-fashioned way - sell a product or service to a customer who forks over cash - the rev rec policy doesn't typically run the length of the Iliad."

"the employee admitted that “it’s like Intrexon” – the mother of synthetic biology scams, which used the same model of round-tripping from related-party to create revenue out of thin air."

"Comparisons to ADP’s competitors are most appropriate at the revenue and gross margin levels given the higher operating expense levels of ADP’s sub-scale and rapidly growing competitors"

"Quantumscape projects a hockey stick revenue ramp in 4 years, reaching $3.2B and $6.4B by 2027/2028 with $808MM and $1.6B in EBITDA, respectively – approaching Google and Apple margins."

"Based on management estimates and our independent research and analysis, we estimate 6% to 8% long-term revenue growth. Our estimate is a slight discount to Valeant management estimates"

"In contrast, after a decade both Nvidia and Tesla had already reached $2 billion in revenue (more than 2x TEM's revenue) and both were able to have at least one cash flow positive year."

"If in fact Oatly's revenues are overstated, costs understated, and net income overstated, one way to balance inflated profits on the asset side of the balance sheet is to inflate capex."

"In 2021 FND started revising down its ecommerce sales claims for 2020 and 2019. This is a strong indicator of revenue misstatement, yet the Company has not made a financial restatement."

"DuPont's inability to generate an attractive return in its non-Agriculture businesses (68% of revenues) is concerning especially in light of the current headwinds in Agriculture markets"