Callouts & quotes from 392+ activist slides

"P&G’s income statement has stalled since 2011, underperforming the peer average on virtually every line item including: sales growth (volume and organic growth), gross profit growth, gross margins, operating profit growth, operating margins and EPS growth"

"TASK is the only company among its peers that we could identify trying to sell investors on COVID-19 related expense adjustments to improve EBITDA and EPS. Analysts aren't asking any questions or pushing back on what we believe are aggressive adjustments."

"Oh, there were other sales directors like that, too, absolutely. What would happen is their sales reps would push back, and they would just move that sales rep to somewhere else. I'm not kidding. I saw that happen twice because of what they were doing."

"Considering that EPs are supremely confident in their ability to isolate both cardiac structures, we expect Convergent to be a massive commercial failure, ending up exactly like AtriCure’s previous attempts to popularize stand-alone surgical ablation."

"The same cast of characters that keeps popping up as lead investigators for Nevro’s studies, and as some of its highest volume implanters, also has a knack for topping its OpenPayments leaderboard, which appears to consist mostly of…speaking payments."

"It appears that PepsiCo views structural change as a sign of weakness, an admission of failure and an untenable break with past traditions. Trian views structural change as the best path forward to generate sustainable increases in shareholder value."

"We believe the board and management’s aggressive disregard for shareholder rights, consistent missteps, lack of a cogent strategy, and inability to deal with the legacy Miss Lime assets have kept the stock from trading closer to its intrinsic value."

"The conduct appears to be an open secret inside the company, with ex-employees conveying skepticism at highly unusual prescription volumes and patterns in various territories, where reps were "finding" far more narcolepsy patients than plausible."

"Spruce Point views MSCI change of practices from providing margin targets to focusing on Adj. EPS as a major red flag. We later illustrate why we believe MSCI's margins are highly susceptible to potential manipulation through cost allocations."

"Spruce Point does not believe that this significant Non-GAAP add back is justified, and finds it concerning that management would choose to include it in Non-GAAP EPS just as it begins to face an increasingly threatening competitive landscape"

"The analyst community is overly bullish on Bunge and largely buys into management's new aspirational EPS target for 2030 despite its pervious guidance failures and underlying financial performance problems with Viterra and Bunge's operations."

"The 33% explant rate in the NANS paper is massively underreported and that the actual rate is “tremendous” and possibly 50-60%; that Nevro’s reps couldn’t get the devices to work again; that the device harms patients; that Nevro “just lies”."

"Once again, Amdocs appears to be taking the same steps which management allegedly took in the early 2000s to cover up potential evidence of business contraction: report consistent growth in Company headcount to corroborate claims of growth."

"Assuming that DuPont achieves 40 cents per share of cost-savings in 2015, Trian estimates that the core business must grow operating earnings by ~29% in Q2-Q4 2015 to meet its revised 2015 EPS guidance of $4.00 per share (low-end of range)"

"Assuming that DuPont achieves 40 cents per share of cost-savings in 2015, Trian estimates that the core business must grow operating earnings by ~29% in Q2-Q4 2015 to meet its revised 2015 EPS guidance of $4.00 per share (low-end of range)"

"We believe this share price decline sends two clear messages: 1) PepsiCo is worth more and would be run better as two separate companies; and 2) the Board and management's decision not to separate goes against shareholders' best interests."

"Assuming that DuPont achieves 40 cents per share of cost-savings in 2015, Trian estimates that the core business must grow operating earnings by ~29% in Q2-Q4 2015 to meet its revised 2015 EPS guidance of $4.00 per share (low-end of range)"

"This diligence gave us confidence that the priorities outlined in our presentation are actionable, can be achieved in partnership with the Board and management, and will strengthen PepsiCo’s competitive position and long-term performance."

"10/28/15: Q3'15 earnings miss on SSS, EPS headwinds due to higher D&A & margin dilution from franchisee acquisitions (labor, low sales, training). Guided to "single digit" net earnings growth in FY'15 and 20% in FY'16. Shares fell ~17%"

"As we shall show, danger due to pitolisant’s drug-drug interactions is inevitable and unavoidable, as it interacts strongly with medications like SSRI’s and other antidepressants that are widely prescribed for narcolepsy and cataplexy."

"More importantly, based on our extensive discussions with EPs, the field is overwhelmingly dubious of the entire idea of the Convergent procedure, mostly because they're not ignorant of all the research we've discussed to this point."

"PepsiCo should evaluate the potential refranchising of PBNA's operationally intensive bottling network - as its closest peer has and as PepsiCo itself has done in years past - to allow each business to focus on its core competencies."

"In the instances where HMA missed the low end of their guidance range, the average magnitude of difference between reported metrics relative to the midpoint of the initial guidance range averages to be -8% for EBITDA and -14% for EPS"

"Internally at Nevro, I don't think they see the substance, based on what I've been told, and they're scratching their heads and saying, "Hey, whatever. I'll take it. I hope the stock keeps going." There aren't fundamentals behind it."

"Reps thought it was unusual for force referrals into a fax machine vs. EMR as is standard practice; reps pushed for EME but “nobody could explain that to me ever”; Harmony allegedly forced this even though could get fined without EMR"

"Essentially because TRE learned that it could successfully lie about operating a factory with a party known to shareholders, it went two steps further – lying about operating a trading business with a party unknown to shareholders."

"As in paid search, while competitors quickly responded to market dynamics, AOL took a short sighted view, generating short-term revenue but not taking the requisite steps to establish a principal position in the growing business."

"We observe that the 2018 annual changes in the operating assets and liabilities of Aerojet netted to exactly zero. This supports our view that Adjusted EBITDAP and EPS growth are low quality and enhanced by aggressive accounting."

"Investors are oblivious to one of Nevro’s greatest risks: its business model, far more than any other stimulator company, is predicated in our opinion on reps and other employees engaging in the unauthorized practice of medicine."

"HARMONY 1 and the other pivotal trials allowed concomitant use of a wide range of medications for narcolepsy, cataplexy, and excessive daytime sleepiness, creating a confounding factor that renders the trials flawed and useless."

"We believe Canadian Tire’s reported EPS does not reflect its underlying organic growth. By removing what we believe are unsustainable benefits to EPS, the gap between our Spruce Point adjusted EPS and the reported EPS widens."

"We believe Canadian Tire's reported EPS does not reflect its underlying organic growth. By removing what we believe are unsustainable benefits to EPS, the gap between our Spruce Point adjusted EPS and the reported EPS widens."

"Since 2006 when the current leadership team took control, PepsiCo's TSR of 47% (5% per annum) is less than half of Coca-Cola's TSR of 115% (11% per annum) and the overall Consumer Staples Index TSR of 103% (10% per annum)."

"If PepsiCo is so willing to give up the potential for synergies in two of the biggest and fastest growing countries in the world, we are hard pressed to believe that operating synergies elsewhere in the world are material."

"Bioprojet-funded paper shows no association between histamine (left) or its metabolite (right) with various etiologies of excessive daytime sleepiness such as narcolepsy with and without cataplexy an idiopathic hypersomnia"

"Spruce Point has difficulty believing Generac's reasons for why Domestic EBITDA margins keep falling. First off, it keeps citing commodity input costs, yet this same factor is never mentioned in the International segment."

"The Value Unlock Plan consists of three key steps. Each step is designed to individually contribute to unlocking significant shareholder value and we present them in the order in which management should undertake them."

"we believe Marathon is severely undervalued and that there are readily available steps by which the Board can unlock $14 – $19 billion in value for shareholders (yielding a ~60 – 80+% increase to today’s stock price)."

"By embracing the proposed actions, PepsiCo possesses a unique opportunity to accelerate revenue and earnings growth and drive a meaningful valuation re-rating, which could deliver more than 50% upside to shareholders."

"It appears that reps would latch onto a patient with narcolepsy and then try to get the physician or their office to expand the diagnosis to cataplexy – even if the patient didn't have it – to “comply” with the label."

"Spruce Point observes that FND removed its Adjusted Net Income and EPS bridge following FY 2022 results. We view this as a potential indicator that the Company no longer wants investors to rely on historical results."

"TWX's divisions are valued by investors based on different metrics: OIBDA, FCF, EPS or yield. Each of TWX's divisions should be positioned to appeal to specific categories of investors: Growth, GARP, Value and Index."

"Since January 2012, DuPont has provided nine different versions of 2011 EPS. Can DuPont’s independent directors explain why that is? Trian’s nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"Since January 2012, DuPont has provided nine different versions of 2011 EPS. Can DuPont's independent directors explain why that is? Trian's nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"Since January 2012, DuPont has provided nine different versions of 2011 EPS. Can DuPont’s independent directors explain why that is? Trian’s nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"Since January 2012, DuPont has provided nine different versions of 2011 EPS. Can DuPont’s independent directors explain why that is? Trian’s nominees will seek to ensure that the board holds management accountable."

"Disney's EPS performance has significantly underperformed its self-selected “media industry” peers in both "new media" (e.g., Netflix, Alphabet) as well as traditional media (e.g., Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery)"

"Disney's EPS performance has significantly underperformed its self-selected “media industry” peers in both "new media" (e.g., Netflix, Alphabet) as well as traditional media (e.g., Comcast, Warner Bros. Discovery)"

"Had advertising as a percentage of sales been held constant at 2006 levels (adjusting for the mix impact from acquisitions), EPS would have grown only 39% from 2006-2013 – 700 bps lower than reported EPS growth"

"In plain English, HMA management could have missed EBITDA guidance by 9%—and EPS guidance by 26%—and they still would have delivered on 100% of the internal Board and Management plan for incentive compensation"

"When we adjust for Amdocs' questionable one-off tax benefits, the Company's effective tax rate grows from its observed level of ~15% to a more realistic ~26%. EPS falls by ~15% after we apply our adjustments."

"If his description of reps' role before, during, and after the implant is even half accurate, we believe Nevro is one internal whistleblower or inquisitive DOJ attorney away from its business model imploding."

"We foresee a full separation driving much higher value for shareholders over time than other alternatives, even assuming management executes its plan of high single digit EPS growth in the current structure."

"We find it particularly interesting that, per his LinkedIn page, Stefaniak left just as PetIQ took its first formal steps towards going public. Was management hoping to sweep his past affairs under the rug?"

"Is it a coincidence that with special and unaudited adjustments in the proxy statement, WTRG's management exceed its “maximum” threshold on EPS, its biggest weighting toward its short-term incentive bonus?"

"Our adjusted EPS figures remove what we believe to be unsustainable benefits to EPS. After considering these adjustments, the company’s underlying organic EPS growth is performing worse than at face value."

"Twist hypes its chip but is less than candid on a critical point: it’s only used for the first step in a long manufacturing workflow, and the remaining steps are the same as any commodity DNA manufacturer."

"The “fee-for-service” delivers a customized offering to a university for their online program at significant reduction in cost. In our illustration, the university keeps an additional 26% of their tuition."

"As part of this amendment, Mercury made certain reps and warranties including that “No Material Adverse Effect” had taken place since closing. Does removing Supermicro as a key technology partner qualify?"

"If Box’s goal was truly to lower the share count and boost EPS, Box could have replicated the intended impact simply by repurchasing $11-$66 million of stock via the Company’s $600+ million cash balance."