Callouts & quotes from 1,508+ activist slides

"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"

"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"

"Either financial supplies revenue is in decline (making it a bad business) or it remains larger than investors expect (meaning there is even more revenue not deserving an 11x multiple)."

"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"

"As Meta did with Zynga, Meta could change its TOS, its code, or both, and APP would be embargoed from its key (albeit improperly obtained) user data as well as ad revenue from Meta ads."

"Synlogic indicates they “used $13.6MM of the pre-paid research and development expenses” in 2020, which we are almost certain was booked by Ginkgo as non-cash non-related-party revenue."

"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"

"Product sales revenues increased by 97%, maintenance contract renewal rates increased to 92% and the business was sold to Concord Communications in 2005 for an 8.5x return to investors."

"Relative to the significant uncertainty regarding future revenue potential for Celgene’s five near-term product launches, we believe Bristol-Myers’ revenue expectations seem aggressive"

"We therefore divide the estimated Q2 FY25 overstated inventory amount, which is a cumulative number, by ELF's reported gross margin of 71%. This provides the implied overstated revenue"

"Spruce Point evaluates companies working capital stress in relation to its revenues. In the case of Saputo, we find that it has been steadily increasing in each of the past five years."

"TWC’s revenue growth has accelerated over the period 2003 - 2005 largely due to the effectiveness of TWC’s new video on demand, digital video recording and high-definition TV products."

"GINGKO BIOWORKS executive #2 – similar to executive #1 – wouldn’t confirm if Gingko actually paid for the 3 machines they have, leading us to wonder if/how BLI has booked it as revenue"

"Executive indicated the paltry amounts of related-party revenue Ginkgo discloses from Synlogic does not square with the level of spending Synlogic is actually doing under the agreement"

"We observe inventory purchase obligations as a percentage of revenue increasing. This further strengthens our belief that inventory is building up and not selling-through to customers."

"LHCG disclosures regarding inorganic sales contributions from acquisitions seem to imply that Almost Family is not generating nearly the level of revenue that management first forecast"

"Based on current implied run rate revenues of $297m, we estimate Leidos has paid 3.4x sales, or a substantial premium to benchmark deals in the airport security and detection industry."

"Since 2007, DSP has spent over $557 million, or $26.65 per share (vs. current price of $8.03), on R&D and acquisitions, yet revenue has declined by approximately 35% during this period"

"Because AMT books these loan repayments (i.e. return legs of financial round trips) as rent revenue, the repayments artificially inflate AMT’s revenue, gross profit, EBITDA, and AFFO."

"We believe overreliance on revenue without minimum profitability threshold misaligns executives with shareholders and allows for manipulation (e.g., acquisitions or agency transition)"

"Yahoo should still milk its PC-based revenues... for as long as it can; just as Tim Armstrong milked AOL's dial-up; but this should be done with the bare minimum of headcount required"

"We believe overreliance on revenue without minimum profitability threshold misaligns executives with shareholders and allows for manipulation (e.g., acquisitions or agency transition)"

"After achieving significant adoption among UHC customers, Naviguard intends to roll out its services broadly to other insurers. Such a move endangers the remainder of MPLN's revenues."

"If management can't seem to get its GAAP treatment of currency hedging correctly, do you really trust its ability to accurately present Non-GAAP foreign currency results on revenues?"

"While investors have cheered WSP's ability to meet net revenue and Adj. EBITDA targets the past few years, we believe investors should scrutinize persistent missed net capex targets."

"That $2.5 billion implies that athena wins 6% of the hospital industry. This is 200% of the current market because less than 3% of hospitals outsource their revenue collection today."

"Spruce Point finds it very alarming that the weighted-average pull through rate has crept higher since 2020. A higher pull-through rate allows management to estimate higher revenues."

"Zillow changed the language in its recent 10-K from closed within two years to generally within two years. Does this mean Zillow can pre-book more revenue from the extended timeline?"

"Riot's business model is dysfunctional, characterized by seemingly endless capital spending, lack of operating leverage, unpredictable revenue, poor returns, and negative cash flow."

"We recommend Autodesk target a minimum of 500bps reduction in sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, which represents approximately $275 million of potential savings."

"Spruce Point estimates that Evoqua’s run rate revenue for the quarter would have severely missed Street estimates by ~8%. In addition, Evoqua contributed a $49 million pre-tax loss."

"Based on the request, the Company believes the focus of the inquiry concerns certain revenue recognition practices and the Company’s relationship with one of its fulfillment vendors"

"Intuit has among the lowest CFO margins and highest SBC per employee. Importantly, Intuit has the worst revenue visibility (by far), a reason SaaS companies trade at rich multiples."

"Approximately $8 million of the $10 million in revenue recognized from the Merck milestone achievement should not be included in the gross revenue because it is passthrough revenue."

"We recommend Autodesk target a minimum of 500bps reduction in sales and marketing spend as a percentage of revenue, which represents approximately $275 million of potential savings."

"Altogether, these components sum to $385.8 million of lost MPLN revenue in 2022, which translates to an organic Adjusted EBITDA and Levered Free Cash Flow decline of $294.2 million."

"Spruce Point believes this could be a way for Zillow to mask the true deceleration in Premier Agent especially if they are not going to disclose Premier Agent revenue going forward."

"Our revenues are lower than the Street and incorporate a lower multiple reflecting a struggling legacy business, and a low quality clean energy business assembled via acquisitions."

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"An offline revenue decline of 4.5% is quite different from even the “healthy” or “stable” Peiyou core business which management described, let alone the 52.4% CFO Rong Luo implied."

"HIMS has pitched itself as an e-commerce company with enterprise SaaS characteristics, including 90%+ “recurring revenue” and a declining CAC. We believe neither claim is accurate."

"Investors should pay attention to trends in Amdocs' working capital spend given that a material share of Company revenue is accounted for using the percentage-of-completion method."

"On the surface, PERI's revenue multiple appears in-line with its small cap advertising technology peers. However, it likely trades at a premium because of inflated revenue results."

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"Assuming TheFork gets sold at 5x CY26E revenue, Viator improves margins, and Brand Tripadvisor stabilizes growth and/or improves margins, the PF Company trades at just 2.5x EBITDA!"

"While the world has shifted from desktop revenues to mobile ones, Yahoo has experienced a number of changes in leadership, changes in the board, and outside distractions including:"

"ACMR recently disclosed a long-term revenue target of $1.5 billion for business outside China. Our reaction to such a lofty goal was a healthy mix of disappointment and excitement."

"If we assume that MPWR's inventory metrics should be in line with industry peers, and that $245 - $265m of revenue is overstated, it implies ~$93m of inventory is also overstated."

"If losses accelerate from increasing its production footprint with no revenues, at 0.5x to 1.0x tangible book value, IPX’s share price could see up to 95% downside risk potential."

"Our analysis required significant effort to extract and estimate Ambry Genetics’ quarterly revenues and test volumes due to limited public disclosure by Konica Minolta (“Konica”)."

"Premiumization in Haircare - Kao has been caught off-guard at home by premiumization in hair care, resulting in a sharp contraction in domestic Health & Beauty revenue since 2020."

"An increase in scale and an improvement in revenue mix (lower mix of servicing fees, higher mix of net interest revenue) should have driven margins above the 2006 pro forma levels"

"Publishing's record over the last few years, however, has been less spectacular as title launches have not generated significant revenue based on industry rankings as shown below."

"Spruce Point believes DV's revenue growth expectations appear to be on the aggressive side. DV is expected to outgrow ad-tech and the global advertising agency space by almost 4x."

"However, even if the Display and Search businesses were included together, we estimate that combined business would still be losing almost $300 million on revenue of $931 million."

"We believe Ailirui is a sham counterparty because a) its SAIC financials show that it is a tiny company that could not conceivably have received such a loan (hint: zero revenue)."

"Kratos management is quick to talk big revenue figures as market opportunities for projects that are speculative in nature, with a low probability of receiving permanent funding."

"This means CSTE had to make up more than 20 percentage points of revenue in savings from marketing or staff cuts just to make up the proportional COGS difference between the two."

"While it appeared IQ was winding down its advertising revenue inflation in 2017 in preparation for its IPO, IQ's ad revenue inflation nearly tripled to RMB 1.537 billion in 2018."