Callouts & quotes from 533+ activist slides

"Spruce Point believes that Avery's trend of disappointing sales expectations continued through the recent quarter. Despite a modest beat in Q3, its implied Q4 outlook leaves significant room for disappointment."

"Even before the recession, Target’s retail margins have been deteriorating while Wal-Mart’s margins have remained higher and constant, despite Wal-Mart selling a greater mix of food and other lower margin goods"

"Even before the recession, Target’s retail margins have been deteriorating while Wal-Mart’s margins have remained higher and constant, despite Wal-Mart selling a greater mix of food and other lower margin goods"

"The Board set a 2015 Adj. EBITDA target for management LOWER than the Company’s 2014 Actual EBITDA despite management telling shareholders that the Company was “on track” to soundly beat its $2.0 billion target"

"scil revenue declined at a -1% CAGR from 2014 to 2019 during its ownership by Henry Schein and Covetrus. Moreover, the business only grew 1% in 2020 despite the supposed trend toward Covid-driven pet ownership."

"The result has been extreme shareholder value destruction and sustained share price underperformance versus peers - despite Avantor having a higher mix of recurring revenue and defensive consumables exposure."

"Despite a significantly better customer experience, streaming video services like Netflix are priced at ~$15 per month or less whereas traditional Pay TV packages cost greater than $80 per month in the U.S."

"CTC's press release cites the reason for the reduction in the incremental allowance as "improved customer default rates" despite the quarterly report mentioning "increased regular and insolvency write-offs""

"Despite what is clearly a challenging retail environment, we believe the execution of the real estate strategy outlined in the attached presentation can create meaningful and lasting value for shareholders."

"Phillips 66 is far from achieving its 2025 mid-cycle EBITDA target, with analysts' 2026 estimates signaling a major shortfall – despite consensus forecasts assuming a reasonable mid-cycle price environment."

"Despite repeatedly touting an emphasis on safety, Norfolk Sothern was adamantly opposed to a mandate proposed by the FRA to standardize two-man crews in an effort to enhance safety in the railroad industry."

"The biometrics review provides a chronology of how the FDA reviewer yet again gave Bioprojet a pass despite obvious red flags and accepted HARMONY 1 as a second trial in support of cataplexy along with CTP."

"Even recognizing that FIGS is projected to grow sales 26% in 2022, it still carries a substantial premium to peers despite our documented concerns around management and its exaggerated financial reporting."

"A LinkedIn search turns up only 6 employees at Allonnia, plus an intern and a random Chief of Staff who lists 2 other current employers, despite being in operation since 2019 and raising $50MM in Oct 2020."

"Despite the obvious potential fit, the board presumably dismissed the transaction to entrench itself, as Midstates publicly stated they would be open to replacing the board with shareholder representation."

"Nonetheless, despite the imprecise methodology, it would be unusual for the number of case reports to fall sharply in 2021/2022 with patient counts spiking, suggesting the true figure is multiples higher."

"Despite claiming to have high levels of visibility into revenue drivers and trends, Box failed to meet its commitments, but continued to claim that the business was on the right track and executing well."

"Despite its stock decline post a downgrade by Stifel, and PERI raising its outlook, investors should be spooked to see that both the CFO and President of Undertone sold stock around the time of earnings."

"Spruce Point has been following the DKNG story closely, and despite the recent share price movement and other prescient short-seller critiques, we believe there is still significantly more downside risk."

"Despite this length of time, these Board members only own 26,073 shares outright, or 0.12% of the outstanding, and four of the board members own 0 shares outright, despite their long tenure on the Board."

"ROAD is trading close to a 5-year high multiple despite our evidence suggesting its move into Texas (and Oklahoma) may be a result of waning demand for its services in Florida with its largest customer."

"iRhythm trades at a $5.4 billion market capitalization and mid-to-high-single-digit revenue multiples despite an anticipated deterioration in revenue growth, which we believe may even prove optimistic."

"The Fed expected the wealth effect would drive growth to 3-4%. Despite the stock market rising about 50% over the last three years and tripling over the last six, GDP growth has stagnated at around 2%."

"XPO’s inability to deliver a game-changing acquisition in 2018 despite repeated promotions by management and brokers leaves more negative headwinds than positive tailwinds to future financial results."

"Allowed CEO Mark Lashier to consolidate Chairman role, add new directors with questionable independence from the CEO and receive generous compensation despite stock underperformance and missed targets"

"Despite its uptake, the long-term science around Aquablation remains unsettled. Thus, the procedure receives only a conditional recommendation and a lower evidence level grade versus TURP by the AUA."

"Tessera has repeatedly licensed outsourced semiconductor assembly and test companies (OSATs) instead of higher value OEM and manufacturer licensees despite OSATs having far lower revenue and margins."

"Despite c.30% of shareholders supporting our unique proposal to address capital allocation issues at last year's AGM, the current Keisei Board and Management team have ceased to engage with Palliser."

"In 4 out of the last 5 years, PPG has reported sales declines despite enjoying tailwinds from growing US housing starts and construction spending, and strong comparable sales in its PPG Paints stores"

"The sole thematic ETF dedicated to tracking the biggest IoT players does not even have Samsara as a top 10 holding despite its $15 billion market cap and pure play exposure to industry fundamentals."

"Despite management’s rhetoric, we believe Disney has never thoroughly reviewed its cost structure, as evidenced by the fact that over the last three years costs have outpaced sales growth by ~400bps"

"Spruce Point has serious concerns that Content IQ’s financials were audited by Kost Forer out of Tel-Aviv despite Content IQ being US-incorporated. This is the same firm auditing PERI’s financials."

"Shares have underperformed peers for more than a decade. Despite this clear market signal, Phillips has ignored the need for change and continually praises the benefits of its diversified portfolio"

"Despite its high growth potential and IRRs in these two plays, and its cash generating core MS Lime position, SandRidge trades at a deep discount to its Peers and its own PV-10 proved reserve base."

"Who are the “non-Ally parties” behind Sonoran who seem willing to pay a premium for subprime loans? And why is management so reluctant to share this information despite questioning from investors?"

"Despite 32% of revenues reported in the United States, only 9.2% of earnings before tax are attributable to the United States. We believe this suggests an aggressive tax structure used by Mettler."

"Despite the reset and significant brand investment, 2013 EPS is forecast to grow only 7%, below the peer average and at the low-end of PepsiCo's long-term guidance ("high single digit EPS growth")"

"Until 1982, the Float worked reasonably well despite HK’s lacking a formal central bank. The commercial banks were made responsible for managing the system, leaving the HKD vulnerable to a crisis"

"Policy makers and mainstream economists are stuck in GroupThink that easy money always helps the economy, despite basic economic principles that suggest diminishing or negative marginal returns."

"Consequently, despite billions in capital investment and shareholder dilution, the US-listed miner percentage share of network hashrate has remained stuck in the low-mid 20s during this period."

"Despite Herbalife's claim that its compensation structure in China is different from other markets, the pro forma Contribution Margin in China essentially mirrors those in the rest of the world"

"Phillips is far from achieving its 2025 mid-cycle EBITDA target, with analyst's 2026 estimates signaling a major shortfall – despite consensus assuming a reasonable mid-cycle price environment"

"Despite McDonald's' hollow attempts to miscast some of our "demands," the reality is our asks are completely reasonable and can help the Board restore its broken credibility with shareholders"

"Lasertec has a $23B (¥3,630B) market cap and is the most actively traded stock in Japan, trading ~$2B a day despite ranking only 64th in market capitalization – a sign of extreme speculation."

"Despite a stellar 2019, we believe Chipotle still has significant unrealized growth potential, with average restaurant sales still 12% below peak levels and margins ~700bps below peak levels"

"Despite our clear concerns and evidence that Avery is under increasing pressure, its one year forward EBITDA and EPS multiples have expanded over the past decade and are near all-time highs."

"Despite the obvious benefits of this fleet penetration story, we are surprised that average ARR from >$100K customers has barely changed over the past three years the data has been reported."

"The more pressing concern for investors should be that despite investing in new product development and supposedly improving sales force productivity, the Grow category is no longer growing."

"Despite the secular tailwinds in its businesses, Arconic is not projecting any growth outside of aero and auto. In fact, from 2016 to 2019 it plans to shrink – outside of EPS and Auto Sheet"

"Industry experts find it telling that GNYHA is aggressively selling shares despite its relatively stable financial position compared to other member owner hospitals currently selling shares"

"Despite all the hype in China over announced hydrogen fuel cell development zones, we can only find two that are producing vehicles and actual investment is less than 1% of announced plans."

"Lightspeed commands a lofty valuation rivaling best-of-breed peer Shopify, despite an inferior business, that since inception in 2005, has shown no evidence of generating economic profits."

"Despite acquiring five companies which generated a reported ~$140 million in aggregate total revenue between 2021 and 2024, Limbach ended 2024 with revenue ~$50 million below 2020 levels."

"Despite all our evidence that Xylem has failed investors, we believe its rubber-stamping Board approved short-term annual incentive target changes that are beneficial towards management."

"Our analysis indicates an alarming result: 2021 acquisitions contributed more Adj. EBITDA than revenue despite management claiming that Fetch, the largest deal of the year, was dilutive."

"YDT is a ghost company (because it is really NQ). We tried extremely hard to find its operations, but were unsuccessful, despite visiting ten different office addresses throughout China."

"Curél remains unavailable for retail in most of Europe outside of the UK, despite strong consumer reviews among European consumers who have purchased Curél (usually directly from Japan)."

"TWX on a consolidated basis trades at a discount to the free cash flow multiples of other diversified media companies despite the fact that TWC contributes limited free cash flow to TWX."

"Despite not having the size and scale to compete with larger peers, and known to have historically pursued a copy-cat like strategy to mimic products, CHD commands a premium valuation."

"Despite attractive assets, Phillips' inefficient conglomerate structure means it trades near the multiple of its lowest-valued segments and at a discount to its sum-of-the-parts value."