Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"Recognition of reality, and the accountability that comes with it at a public company, seem to be precisely what Hess’s Management and Board are doing everything in their power to avoid"

"Recognition of reality, and the accountability that comes with it at a public company, seem to be precisely what Hess's Management and Board are doing everything in their power to avoid"

"Recognition of reality, and the accountability that comes with it at a public company, seem to be precisely what Hess's Management and Board are doing everything in their power to avoid"

"If all aspects of our value creation plan are implemented by the company, we believe that Viacom’s common shares may trade at between $65-95.90/share or up to 135% above current levels."

"If all aspects of our value creation plan are implemented by the company, we believe that Viacom’s common shares may trade at between $65-95.90/share or up to 135% above current levels."

"If all aspects of our value creation plan are implemented by the company, we believe that Viacom’s common shares may trade at between $65-95.90/share or up to 135% above current levels."

"If all aspects of our value creation plan are implemented by the company, we believe that Viacom's common shares may trade at between $65-95.90/share or up to 135% above current levels."

"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"

"Over the last several years, Autodesk’s management team and Board have overseen a wide range of concerning issues and underperformance, which we believe makes clear the need for change."

"Autodesk Inc. fell by the most in almost a month after disclosing an internal investigation into its own accounting practices and putting off the release of its annual financial report."

"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."

"CPT code 81479 (Unlisted molecular pathology procedure) experienced substantial growth, increasing from $197.2 million to $470.2 million, representing a 34% compound annual growth rate."

"Shareholders should vote “AGAINST” to stop Management from continuing the value destruction and to set a path to unlock value by engaging in a full diagnostic and review of ACAS' assets"

"PowerSchool’s Intersect product may be operating in direct violation of several states’ student privacy laws which prohibit building student profiles and targeting ads to K-12 students."

"CONSOL's falling costs and recently implemented zero-based budgeting should bring cash costs toward $33 per ton next year, allowing it to remain quite profitable during the dislocation."

"Spruce Point believes the earnout structure allowed Evoqua to book Adjusted EBITDA and earnings for a transaction where management implied a high probability of failing to meet targets."

"We look forward to collaborating with Southwest to restore accountability and best-in-class financial performance for the benefit of the Company’s employees, customers and shareholders."

"Bulls counter that well economics are improving over time, and that Pioneer's newer technology and more extensive experience makes any analysis of its historical performance irrelevant."

"Spruce Point believes that the aggressive entry of third-party 3D printing labs into the clear aligner space could quickly render the aligner a low-value-added commodity in short order."

"Arconic’s most recent investor presentation utilizes every “trick in the book” (and then some), in a desperate attempt to spin Dr. Kleinfeld’s abysmal track record of shareholder return"

"Shareholders are concerned that constant guidance revisions represent a fundamental lack of managerial understanding of the EPS business, a business which has relatively high visibility"

"Arconic markets the roll-over of existing contracts as “winning new business” and claims new contract wins for deals previously won by companies it acquires – and is very cagey about it"

"If you had invested $100 in USFD it would be worth $46 less than the same investment in SYY, $43 less than the same investment in PFCG, $61 less than the same investment in the S&P 500."

"YY's Bigo acquisition was the culmination of a scam that unfolded over several financing rounds while ultimately being funded with a substantial portion of YY's 2017 secondary offering."

"DND recently added Shopify (-11.7% TSR since DND's IPO), Kinaxis (-17.3% TSR since DND's IPO), and Global Payments (-38.2% TSR since DND's IPO) to help improve its relative performance."

"An investigator we sent to Shenzhen Kuayu’s registered address received confirmation that ANTA controls SZ Kuayu and other Guangdong distributors, and that each is a subsidiary of ANTA."

"But the shenanigans at Quanzhou Binhui don’t stop in 2011. In 2016, Quanzhou Binhui was again transferred to two men, one a current ANTA employee, the other a trusted ListCo lieutenant."

"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."

"While Oatly does warn investors about a Material Weakness of its internal control over financial reporting, we believe it does not adequately explain the exact impact to its financials."

"Temptime's primary applications are in the healthcare industry and it is a technology. However, the product is not highlighted at all on Zebra's Healthcare Technology Solutions website."

"We analyze Zebra's year ending inventory balance relative to its next 12 months forward projected sales and last 12 months sales and find the ratios to be elevated at a multi-year high."

"Today we would like to share our Revised Proposal for Creating Significant Value at McDonald's which incorporates feedback from McDonald's management, franchisees and other shareholders"

"We have identified more than $500 million in cost reductions through a combination of improved labor productivity and SG&A reductions, as well as other EBITDA improvement opportunities."

"What is Vivendi’s real agenda for TIM? Bolloré recognises the inherent conflict of interest, given the risk of prejudicial procurement decisions, so why is Vivendi managing the Company?"

"Twist sells low-quality sequences via a scorched-earth pricing and discounting strategy, it is not surprising that it has ended up with bottom-of-the-barrel price-seeking customer base."

"Serial capital raisers make fantastic shorts, as they dilute stockholders into oblivion just like a Ponzi: the share count expands with each new raise, crushing the value of each share."

"Manufacturing oligos – that is, synthetic DNA - is nothing special. It is a standard, commodity industrial process using a method that is 40 years old, called phosphoramidite chemistry."

"Pre-crisis about half of new munis were insured. With the rating scale corrected and no AAA rated bond insurers left, the arbitrage is nearly gone and insurance is purchased less often."

"When we adjust Samsara's COGS to assume a three-year amortization period for device costs, we find that gross margins have been overstated by well over 600bps the past two fiscal years."

"We find the two-year period notable insofar it is closer to where we believe current contract lengths (and device useful lives) are in the market, and not 5 years as assumed by Samsara."

"We think the fact that ELF ceased disclosing these metrics in Q2 FY25 is also a red flag because this coincides with inventory reporting becoming hugely questionable (as we show later)."

"This increase reflects “a change in certain vendor arrangements where we [ELF] now take ownership of inventory at shipment from China versus when it enters our U.S. distribution center."

"Marathon’s prior Management and Board continued pointing towards the loss of integration benefits, which was quickly disproven, through thoughtful structuring and commercial engagement."

"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."

"We also note that the delayed timing of the MFS launch with respect to the Utiba acquisition superficially makes MFS appear to be much more of an organic development than it really was."

"We look forward to collaborating with Southwest to restore accountability and best-in-class financial performance for the benefit of the Company's employees, customers and shareholders."

"Spruce Point also observes that Saputo made a subtle change in describing its competitive position from "market-leading" to "category-leading". Why would the Company make this revision?"

"Of the 27 new product introductions, 12 direct consumers to purchase the product on Amazon through Monster’s website which we believe is a lower contribution margin distribution outlet."

"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"

"When Disney launched its streaming strategy, we believe it made many decisions to maximize distribution quickly that run counter to the core tenets of running a successful DTC platform."

"Taubman's problems are self-inflicted – Taubman has repeatedly blamed poor performance on the industry when the problems lie with management and poor oversight by the Board of Directors"

"In this illustrative example, Huntsman may be underpricing its product by ~30% given its competitor needs to price at $100 per unit to earn the same minimum required contribution margin"

"The CEO declined to specifically detail the nature of the recent hospitalizations, indicating only that they were for pulmonary/respiratory events and “events related to hyperglycemia.”"

"Transamerica Life Insurance Company has a NAIC complaint index of ~5.4, meaning that Transamerica Life Insurance Company generates 5.4x the number of complaints as the national average."

"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"

"Spruce Point has repeatedly warned to be cautious when companies cannot accurately forecast capex, as this often leads to gross margin deterioration (and ultimately EPS disappointment)."

"A uniform opinion is that the culture has changed under CEO Farrell and CFO Dierker more towards a culture of financial engineering, and less towards product innovation and improvement."

"In our opinion, Church & Dwight’s CEO Matt Farrell is no rock-star. He would love to bury his past as CFO at Alpharma (NYSE: ALO), but Spruce Point thought it worthwhile to investigate."

"By simplifying and streamlining the digital offer process — fewer clicks, near-instant valuations, clearer steps — CarMax can capture a greater share of sellers already engaging online."