Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"It is the US version of the “China Hustle,” when Chinese frauds – generally of the related-party genre - listed in the US a decade ago, with a recent revival."

"With organic revenue growth consistently disappointing and pressures intensifying, there is no basis to project revenue growth will miraculously change course"

"We conclude that Huishan has fraudulently inflated its gross margins and reported profits since at least FY14 by lying about being self-sufficient in alfalfa."

"This finding is significant because it implies an even greater delta between the real CapEx expenditure on PP&E, and that derived from the cash flow analysis."

"Spruce Point finds it concerning that much of the behavior outlined in the Audit Committee investigation parallels behaviors which we observe at Verint today."

"We believe that with resolute and decisive action, Phillips 66 is primed to deliver far greater returns for its shareholders than it has over the past decade."

"HMG needs to achieve a group-wide improvement in corporate governance standards that should reflect its status as a multinational and leading automotive group"

"One of our learnings from past mistakes is to act promptly when we discover new information about an investment that is inconsistent with our original thesis."

"Heska didn't invent the consumables subscription model. However, it has innovated a special brand of it that seems to create a lot of friction with customers."

"Optomed co-founder Arnaud Duchene has already left the Company. Optomed is another low quality asset that is wholly inconsistent with Heska’s stated strategy."

"The number of times PDN was hyped by the CEO and sell-side on the recent Q3 earnings call - 19 mentions of PDN - is suggestive of its importance to the story."

"Mr. Martinez announced his mayoral candidacy just two weeks after company began its strategic review, the same month that his $500k consulting contract ended."

"Kao’s nominees have lower skills coverage across critical areas compared to peers such as supply chain, marketing, finance, consumer goods and digitalization."

"We estimate Oribe's revenue to be roughly half their size, Oribe could match these figures and more through expanded marketing and distribution beyond salons."

"If you apply a constant P/E multiple on the new Apple earnings, Apple common stock would have a new price of $430 per share versus the current $450 per share."

"The result was a surprisingly high average of 66%. This is primarily due to two major properties currently marketing substantially all of their NLA for lease."

"Pioneer Power stands out as Limbach’s lowest-margin acquisition, with EBITDA margins meaningfully below those of its prior targets and of the legacy business."

"Apollo Hospitals seems to be a recidivist when it comes to organ trafficking scandals – which seems par for the course for hospitals in major cities in India."

"To Microsoft and OpenAI, CoreWeave is simply a “bare metal” provider of GPU access, competing on price and availability, not differentiated software features."

"Every hospital that Inspire names under “independent” clinical studies has received substantial payments from Inspire for vaguely named post-approval studies."

"Cutting advertising is a quick and easy way to boost EBITDA and unit economics as the full impact on unit sales lags the near instantaneous reduction in cost."

"The vast majority of the group’s members appear to be lurkers vs. families on drug – those curious about Vykat are noticing the deluge of negative commentary."

"In conclusion, we encourage shareholders to vote FOR Oasis nominees five independent, world-class Director candidates at Kao's upcoming AGM on March 21, 2024."

"The primary endpoint of Weekly Rate of Cataplexy was highly subjective and based on a patient-reported diary, rendering the data low-quality and questionable."

"Became alarmed after a 42-year old patient was hospitalized for QT prolongation. He disclosed the risk to his patients - and all but two quickly discontinued."

"Doug Cole’s disclosure regarding Great Bear Technology contains inconsistencies, and actual transaction sizes suggest largely immaterial corporate operations."

"Our model assumes the base business will earn ~57% EBITA margins through 2020, implying continued spend on promotion and R&D, despite no pipeline contribution"

"Investors should carefully weigh the substantial downside presented by Sinch's exposure to the scam call ecosystem against any perceived growth opportunities."

"We believe the previous purchase price of $2.95M just months prior to the IIPR purchase to be more accurate value of the property at the time of the purchase."

"We fail to understand why Holistic would rather pay 10x on rent and believe an overpayment of property + inflated rent look more like a financing transaction."

"This is all to that the design philosophy of the Midnight as a prospective FAA certified air taxi are not well aligned with the ‘attritable asset’ philosophy."

"We ask, why take a less than $250,000 8% interest rate loan from directors when you supposedly have at least 27x in both operating cash flow and cash at hand?"

"Even if some of these reviewers were genuine reviews, Trustpilot clearly allows a distortion of its scores from review spam that can very easily be prevented."

"It’s the things that happened at the company in 2023 that weren’t mentioned yesterday that investors need not forget about. That’s why they weren’t mentioned."

"The last step in calculating monthly utilization (number of PhenoTests per month per system) is dividing estimated reagent revenue by functional system-month."

"It does not look to us that physicians were eager to know PhenoTest results, otherwise why would they be not placing positive blood cultures on Pheno systems?"

"As shown in the image above, this address appears to be a beauty salon on Google Maps. This is more than a bit strange for a ~$700 million market cap company."

"Our investigators noticed almost no activity when observing it from the perimeter – it looks old and not like a high-technology innovation park or R&D center."

"As they moved into the interior, it became clear that the complex is essentially deserted and a ghost town, except for some landscaping work in the courtyard."

"Papa’s scientific and industry background, shareholder orientation, history of commercial excellence, and strong ethics make him the ideal leader for Valeant"

"EDU's WFOEs have very little business substance within them, which increases the temptation for EDU management to use the operating company to enrich itself."

"Given our concerns that Avery is running out of aggressive financial and accounting methods used to embellish its results, we see significant downside risks."

"Warning: Adjusted Net Income for 2018 Is Overstated By $14.3m ($73.7 – $59.4 Revised) Resulting In Adjusted EPS of $5.90 vs. $6.06 Reported (2.7% Overstated)"

"Given our concerns that Avery is running out of aggressive financial and accounting methods used to embellish its results, we see significant downside risks."

"We will typically vote against all directors of companies which do not publicly disclose their emissions and do not have a credible plan for their reduction."

"Based on my own informal survey, many fund managers have no idea of the breadth of tools available to them to improve corporate governance at their companies"

"Though there are valid concerns in the near term, we believe buying Danone at 1.5-2.0x P/E and ~33% FCF discount to European food peers more than compensates"

"The U.S. tower business is highly attractive, highlighted by long-lived physical structures, low churn, built-in price escalators and 95% incremental margins"

"Zoetis has agreed to share confidential company information with Pershing Square, improving our ability to help the company create value for all shareholders"

"From Muddy Waters we have learned that, in the short term, one can only effectively defend oneself to a limited extent against false claims and insinuations."

"Negative growth combined with high costs led to big losses, which peaked at $1.2 billion in one quarter, about half of what the whole company is worth today."

"Tough questions aren't often asked when companies can put up accelerating double digit revenue growth while delivering stable margin expansion along the way."

"Despite having the best rail franchise in North America, UNP has unequivocally been the worst performing Class I railroad under current eight-year leadership"

"Our estimates conservatively assume UNP only recaptures half the volume underperformance vs. US railroad peers that UNP experienced under current leadership."

"Service and operating metrics have deteriorated since Jim Vena's departure. Countless UNP customers have filed complaints to the STB about UNP's poor service"

"In September 2021, Pershing Square completed its acquisition of 10% of Universal Music Group from Vivendi at a negotiated equity value for UMG of €33 billion"

"We agree with Mr. Eisman’s comments on the current credit conditions and believe the market has not paid enough attention to Canadian Tire’s credit portfolio"

"If investors worry about the credit profiles of traditional Canadian banks, they should fear the level of risk in Canadian Tire Bank’s credit card portfolio."

"Applying the same multiples to Xerox that the Board applies to Fuji Xerox¹ would result in Xerox shareholders owning at least 57%-59% of the combined company"

"But many of the world's leading companies – including some in this very same industry – source critical products and components from their direct competitors"