Callouts & quotes from 575+ activist slides

"Xylem is trying to pass off $70 million of transaction costs in Q2 2023 as an addition to Adjusted Free Cash Flow. However, we take issue with this figure because it appears to be on a pre-tax basis when added to operating cash flow, which is an after-tax financial result."

"ROAD initially touted its “Attractive Financial Profile with High Return on Capital” by showing Free Cash Flow (FCF) Conversion and Return on Capital Employed (ROCE). By 2023, ROAD’s FCF Conversion definition markedly changed, and it ceased to provide a chart showing ROCE."

"The sell side values VRNT on a P/E basis against Non-GAAP EPS. This approach fails to take into account Verint's poor organic growth, the widening disparity between GAAP EPS and (low-quality) Non-GAAP EPS, and the Company's failure to grow cash flow despite a flood of M&A."

"AOL has used the valuable cash flows generated by its declining Access and Search businesses to fund what we believe are massive losses of more than $500 million per year in its Display advertising business in pursuit of its goal of becoming a premium online media company."

"At best, Archer is where Joby was a full two years ago. This is generous, as it at that time, Joby had reported 15% completion but had a larger fleet and evidence indicates they had done more R&D and amassed far more flight hours and miles flown than Archer has at present."

"A close look at Nuvei's working capital and balance sheet reveals that payables are being increased at a faster rate than receivables. Working capital is turning more negative. We believe this is helping to generate cash flow in the near term which may not be sustainable."

"Now, betting on an electric future is a popular thing to do. While we don’t know the winners or the losers, the market loves all these stocks, which trade at multiples that seem ambitious to people like me, who try to tie a value to boring things like future cash flows."

"Even under management's wellness center ramp-up assumptions – which we consider overly-ambitious – PetIQ's new wellness centers would fail to generate positive cash flow until FY22, and would not generate a positive return on total investment until the following year."

"Ströer's year-end cash flow statements wrongly show that Ströer had no borrowings during the year. In fact, Ströer draws down tens of millions euro on its credit facility each of the first three quarters of the year, which it then repays before the end of the quarter."

"We observe that Axon just reported its worst Q1 cash burn in its public history. Management is claiming this is due to the Taser 7 ramp, and trade-in credit terms. However, we believe there are other factors at work that will cause cash flow to remain under pressure."

"Hence, a fraudster is trapped by double-entry bookkeeping and the interdependence between the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement – they cannot overstate profits on the income statement without also overstating assets or understating liabilities."

"While YT appears to have started to hide assets in Blitz in 2017 (two years before declaring bankruptcy), we have found that this money started to flow back into FFAI in April 2019 through a note purchase agreement with Blitz and other employees and relatives of YT."

"We refer to calculation with no credit for ongoing price increases as AFFO methodology (i.e., free cash flow will continue to grow by level of price increases), and calculation which adds back for price increases as bond methodology (i.e., true fixed income yield)."

"IRBT has historically reported positive operating cash flow (OCF) in its first quarter results. However, in Q1 2014, IRBT reported its first ever Q1 OCF burn in over 8 years (and the only time its GAAP Net Income has been positive, while its OCF has been negative!)"

"However, in our view, management failed to effectively communicate the financial rationale behind the strategic pivot, as the profitability guidance has not changed while the change in strategy put significant stress on Disney’s balance sheet and cash flow profile"

"Investor enthusiasm ebbs and flows over the years for money-losing and speculative fuel cell and energy storage companies similar to Ballard (ex: PLUG, FCEL, and HYGS). We find long-term valuations tend to be around 2.0x - 2.5x book value and 1.5x - 3.5x revenues"

"Carvana not only trades at nosebleed levels relative to its closest peers, even on consensus revenue growth expectations we regard as too high, Carvana now trades at a premium to leading tech players, all of whom enjoy better margins and generate free cash flow."

"Technology is nothing special; just an expensive mash-up of cheap, existing lab tools like flow cytometers and fluidics; dismissed it as a glorified cytometer, which sell for $50-$500K; called out lack of data showing any real-world impact from the instrument."

"PBH reports “non-GAAP adjusted free cash flow.” Spruce Point believes this is particularly egregious and aggressive, as the Company adds back integration and transition costs, therefore ignoring the costs of M&A but wanting to show investors all the benefits."

"Because the JV transaction can generate such large cash proceeds, which significantly decreases Macy's current debt burden, the pro forma Macy's OpCo alone is worth more than Macy's current stock price, while Macy still owns 85% of the JV and its cash flows."

"Spruce Point believes it is a major red flag when a company stops being able to provide Free Cash Flow (FCF) guidance. We observe this happened after the departure of CFO Young in mid 2020. In the year he left, BR missed FCF guidance by an astounding 15.3%."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside risk to MSCI’s share price as its premium multiple is reconsidered by institutional investors in the face of intensifying competition, moderating cash flow and dividend growth, and lower earnings quality."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside risk to PERI’s share price as the Company is signaling financial strain and will have difficulty in hitting lofty growth targets while cash flow is starting to contract and it accrues for severance costs."

"Lower commodity prices are forcing the industry to cut costs. Here we adjust the revenue to the future strip price, and cut expenses by 20%. On that basis, gross cash flow is $30 per BOE and Pioneer earns a positive margin. But, it's not positive value."

"In the context of his wildly aggressive revenue target claims, pressures on cash flow, outsized exposure to struggling Facebook as a 22% customer, and new evidence of financial reporting tied to borrowing not adding up, investors should be on red alert."

"Spruce Point believes omitting a clearly identifiable 10.71% minority interest in a principal subsidiary undermines the reliability of the Company’s financial reporting and risks overstating EBITDA, profits, and cash flow available to SGHC shareholders."

"We have shown that both GFL's operating cash flow and capital expenditures do not reconcile. As a result, we believe its free cash flow is also potentially misstated. We believe adjusted H1 2020 free cash flow burn was ~60% worse than reported by GFL."

"We believe that because WTRG cannot cover its dividend with free cash flow, money raised from investors through these programs could essentially be used to pay back the same and other investors dividends, or “taking from Peter, to pay Peter and Paul.”"

"Spruce Point believes Avery's business has been an abject failure over the past 20 years. It has spent $1.8bn on R&D, $2.8bn for acquisitions, and incurred $1.0bn of restructuring costs. All the while, annual Free Cash Flow hasn't consistently grown."

"CHD reported $763.6m of operating cash flow in 2018. Yet, according to its bonus calculation, actual performance was $771m. So is it claiming better cash flow performance? The difference of $7.5m is exactly the amount of factored receivables in 2018."

"GINGKO BIOWORKS executive #1 challenged the machine’s purported value proposition: doesn't speed up overall workflows for pharma/biotech customers; throughput is a limitation; unclear if/when the Beacon is the right screening tool versus competitors."

"Spruce Point believes that CLEAR has a history of aggressively promoted Free Cash Flow. For example, it even used to add back the value of share repurchases over fair value, which is a highly unusual adjustment that Spruce Point has not seen before."

"The figures provided for 2022 and 2023 in the footnotes do not reconcile with the figures in the cash flow statement. We believe this could just be more evidence of Enfusion's weak financial controls that undermine confidence in financial reporting."

"Not only has Crown Castle's AFFO per share grown more slowly than that of peers, but its AFFO also includes less of its total capex. In other words, Crown Castle is growing cash flow per share slower than its peers despite spending far more capital"

"The Company has a number of loan arrangements with fellow Group entities. In error, cashflow transactions associated with these loan arrangements were presented within "Cash generated from operating activities" within the Statement of Cash Flows."

"Stop lowering the bar with targets such as negative free cash flow and a return on invested capital well below the Company’s estimated cost of capital – unconscionable targets that the Compensation Committee has approved the last two fiscal years"

"Despite over three years of effort and billions spent on acquisitions, the management team that was hired to turn around the Core Business has failed to produce acceptable results, in turn, causing massive declines in profitability and cash flow."

"Stop lowering the bar with targets such as negative free cash flow and a return on invested capital well below the Company's estimated cost of capital - unconscionable targets that the Compensation Committee has approved the last two fiscal years"

"Avery recently updated its accounting for credit losses in Q1 2020, an opportune time as COVID-19 ravaged businesses across the globe. It has also subtly changed the wording on its cash flow statement from "doubtful accounts" to "credit losses"."

"Crown Castle has claimed that the fiber strategy will “enhance” its dividend capacity, but fiber has never generated positive cash flow, which raises the question: How can an investment that is compounding negative cash flow help fund dividends?"

"CTC's cash conversion cycle (defined as DSO + DIO – DPO) has jumped in the first three quarters of 2019 on both a Y-o-Y and an absolute basis. This is further evidence of weakness in CTC's retail business and another sign of strain on cash flow."

"CTC's cash conversion cycle (defined as DSO + DIO – DPO) has jumped in the first three quarters of 2019 on both a Y-o-Y and an absolute basis. This is further evidence of weakness in CTC's retail business and another sign of strain on cash flow."

"The structure raises questions about whether Tempus is round-tripping value through its cash flow statement, as the Company invests $95 million into the joint venture and then receives nearly the same amount back in the form of license payments."

"We find Sunnova reports metrics that are not aligned with those its peers report. Spruce Point has concerns about the quality and relevance of these metrics including Adjusted EBITDA, Adjusted Operating Expenses and Adjusted Operating Cash Flow."

"There is almost universal agreement that WSP's share price is a Buy; what could go wrong? Spruce Point believes that none of the analysts have conducted a rigorous forensic analysis to question the quality of WSP's recent earnings and cash flow."

"SCT's capital allocation framework and the strategic rationale behind it are vague and confusing. None of the free cash flow generated by the operating businesses is returned to shareholders causing many to ignore the value of those businesses"

"Spruce Point believes it is a huge red flag that Bunge failed to provide revenue projections for Viterra in its proxy statement which it likely had formulated if it were able to provide Adj. EBIT, EBITDA and Unlevered Free Cash Flow estimates."

"With GTT's poor trailing twelve-month cash conversion rate of 5.1%, and management's guidance for capex of 7% of revenue, it is mathematically impossible for GTT to generate free cash flow unless it can significantly improve cash conversion."

"In addition to its incredibly stable and secure cash flows, TIP REIT has strong growth prospects, given its initial 2-year exclusive right as Target Corp’s land developer and its formal Preferred Vendor Agreement with Target Corp thereafter"

"PBT was the same in both statements. The Q4 2010 Statement of Cash Flows obviously should have included the transaction costs and impairment charges. That it did not is another example showing that Olam's accounting is incompetent at best."

"Given our concerns about the reliability of Kornit's financials, we believe the most conservative way to value the Company is on its revenues and cash flow, both of which we believe will normalize for the large Amazon contribution in 2018."

"IPX has no raw materials, in process, or finished goods inventory on the balance sheet at June 30, 2025 and reported no cash flows from operating activities related to production, development or inventory purchases through September 30th."

"The Transaction allows for meaningful debt paydown by 2011E of $7.8bn. Of this amount, $4.4bn comes from selling the remaining 53% interest in credit card receivables and $3.2bn from free cash flow after operating and investing activities"

"Zebra uses accounts receivable ("A/R") factoring arrangements. Receivables sold are recorded through cash from operations, and when measured as a percent of sales and total operating cash flow, we see greater usage intensity since 2022."

"Since the initial investment, Huntsman has invested an incremental ~$660 million into a business that has yet to perform in-line with the Company's initial expectations, and continues to be free cash flow negative on a cumulative basis."

"Just a reminder that insiders recently disclosed a stock selling program dating back to Nov 2022 when the stock was in the low $20s, and that the last time PERI reported operating cash flow under $20m, the share price was single digits."

"The net cash outflow connected with the acquisition amounted to EUR 0 million as the consideration of EUR 273.0 million was off-set with loans provided by the Group to Senales Invest, entity fully owned by the Group's main shareholders."

"Disney fails to set challenging financial performance targets (70% of annual bonus), including negative free cash flow targets in FY 2021 & 2022 and targets well below consensus estimates when comp plans for the year are made ('20-'23)"

"Disney fails to set challenging financial performance targets (70% of annual bonus), including negative free cash flow targets in FY 2021 & 2022 and targets well below consensus estimates when comp plans for the year are made ('20-'23)"

"On the surface, and taking management's headline numbers, everything looks great. But, cash flow is stalling out, while USCR's dependency on "adjustments" to engineer earnings growth rise. Q1'2018 results are showing significant strain"