Callouts & quotes from 1,508+ activist slides

"Skechers’ purchase commitments relative to LTM revenue are approximately 64% higher than that its peers as of their most recent fiscal year end. Moreover, Skechers’ increase in relative purchase commitments since before COVID-19 (FY-2 for all) is over twice as high as that of others."

"Thus, even if we assume iRhythm can achieve the low end to consensus of Wall Street analyst revenue estimates for 2026, which we doubt, applying a more appropriate 2x to 4x revenue multiple range yields approximately 40% to 70% stock price downside and material underperformance risk."

"With ~30% of revenues tied to BH, the equity story is very dependent on success of the partnership between Baker Hughes and C3. However, multiple contract amendments pushing revenue into the future, and the resignation of BH's CEO from C3's Board all point to a troubled relationship."

"To summarize Red Cat's version of their SRR win: Teal will be the sole supplier to the Army of about 12 thousand drones and 6 thousand controllers at a cost of $45 thousand per system, for a total revenue over a 5-year period (that's based on the press release) of about $265 million."

"Spruce Point observes a concerted effort by Avery over the years to provide less and less disclosure to investors. Notably, we see omission of six (6) key disclosures that directly affect revenue drivers. We believe this bolsters our concern that organic revenues may be overstated."

"Spruce Point questions the heavy insider selling in Q4 2021 around the time we find both: 1) Unusual international revenue declining and, 2) Underestimation of the Zentrick termination payout by 2x that would have drastically reduced the Company’s 29% earnings beat for the quarter."

"If sales growth rates at these acquired businesses rebounded to their prior trajectories in subsequent years, Hill-Rom would have enjoyed artificially higher organic revenue growth during the subsequent years, as it would have been calculated off an artificially lower revenue base."

"Commentary from G&K and its financial projections illustrated how it expected to achieve approximately 3.5% - 5.3% annual revenue growth from 2016 - 2018. Yet, when Cintas issued guidance for FY 2018 including G&K, it implied a -4.2% annual revenue decline at the guidance midpoint!"

"Per the original JV contract, peak revenues were slated to be $170m in the year ending April 30, 2022. The most recent amendment has revised the contract for revenues to peak three years later (April 30, 2025) than the original agreement and at a reduced commitment level of $125m."

"PGNY has failed to meet fertility benefit revenue expectations set when it went public. However, the rapid adoption of the pharmacy benefit by existing customers has offset those misses. Importantly, we believe there is little juice to squeeze from pharmacy adoption going forward."

"VFC provides a white labeled front-end online pharmacy to all of its vet partners (see below). VFC shares a portion of the revenue with the vet, allowing them to recapture a previously lost revenue source. VFC provides recommendations to vets in order to keep pricing competitive."

"Spruce Point has analyzed Generac's warranty reporting and has serious concerns mirrored by numerous consumer complaints, product recalls, and reported injuries. We observe that warranty payments, provisions, and liabilities are increasing faster than its recent organic revenues."

"We believe these revenue streams in total (interest on term loans, float revenue, financial supplies, royalties, and revenue-sharing income) could total nearly $600 million over the next year. Simply valuing this revenue properly at 1x yields 3% downside for Intuit's stock price."

"Warning: MGNI doesn't put earnings call commentary in its 10-Q when discussing revenue trends (eg. Political election, live sports) and is now warning about lower take rates from CTV. MGNI also did not put its apparently strong Q4 commentary in the 10-Q, unlike the prior quarter."

"When compared to peers, Limbach has among the lowest NTM RPO as a percentage of estimated NTM revenue. This could imply a weaker forward revenue base, shorter project durations, or less visibility into future revenue, potentially signaling elevated revenue risk relative to peers."

"Based on Australian filings, PBH Australia’s revenue growth is slowing. This would contradict management’s prior comments regarding the growth opportunity in the region, lead by well-positioned brands and acquisitions. We believe PBH may be stretching to deliver on its promises."

"The evidence suggests that Axon has aggressively recognized revenues. These aggressive accounting choices were known to be blessed by Arthur Andersen, the now defunct auditor, that famously signed-off on Enron’s financial statements and was charged with obstruction of justice."

"Dollarama has no promotional expense. Meanwhile, promotional expenses average 1-2% of revenue among U.S. peers. As established competitors continue to expand, and as new competitors enter the market (Amazon included), Dollarama’s no-cost marketing strategy may prove untenable."

"Each has a similar structure: Ginkgo and its investors create and fund the entity, which then simply returns and round-trips back cash or “non-cash consideration” to Ginkgo under the guise of R&D “prepayments” or services, which it books as Foundry revenue or deferred revenue."

"We Believe the Loss of Government Funding for Pentagon Contracts That Had Comprised Up To 86% of Recognized Revenues, and Additional Bookings of $54.6 Million Led to Potentially Illegal Insider Sales, Massive Dilution, and a Desperate Rollup of Non-Quantum Computing Businesses"

"Spruce believes Kalshi and other prediction market entrants (e.g., Polymarket) represent a much larger threat to DKNG than to Flutter (FLUT). DKNG is almost entirely U.S.-dependent, with ~61% of its total revenue coming from its U.S. sportsbook, compared to just 29% for FLUT."

"Oasis estimates freeplus revenue for 2023 was less than USD 150 million, however, the estimated global retail value of its product peers, Kenvue’s Neutrogena (USD 2.9 billion) and L’Oréal’s Garnier (USD 6.4 billion), demonstrate the potential growth opportunity for freeplus."

"Given the various concerns we've documented in our analysis of Perion's revenue and customer inconsistencies, along with shrinking accounting disclosures, we believe shareholders would benefit from a fresh pair of eyes with a new external and internal audit firm and partner."

"We cannot understand how this issue could have been a surprise to the Company. Even basic accounting due diligence would have detailed Olapic’s contract structure, its revenue recognition policy, and any changes to revenue recognition that would be required post acquisition."

"Given anomalies we've observed in the revenue reporting and commissions with the BH joint venture, we are concerned that C3's commissions accounting manager has only been with the Company three months, and that it is currently looking to hire a new "Senior Revenue Manager"."

"Our EPS/EBITDA estimates for 2017/2018 are ~3%/-10% below Street consensus. We expect strong top-line growth from North American onshore activity levels (~30%-35% of current revenues), but this will be partially offset by headwinds from offshore activity (~40% of revenues)."

"AMR purchased 84% of coal sold in its Trading and Logistics Segment from Alpha in 2017. The intercompany eliminations between Contura and Alpha show revenues equaling costs. Despite this, Contura/AMR reported $89.3 million of EBITDA from the Trading and Logistics segment."

"Kornit trades at a meaningful premium to direct digital printing peers it competes with, as well as its second largest print customer which is struggling, on the belief that its 20%+ revenue growth rate is sustainable and its margins are better than peers and will expand."

"Relatively stable gaming OP in FY19 bodes well for FY20 and beyond, and supports the notion that the gaming segment is becoming less and less cyclical as the business continues to transition toward recurring revenue and live services, and away from cyclical hardware sales"

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside to Lightspeed’s share price as the Company appears overvalued on both revenue and gross profit metrics, and should trade at a material discount to peers given the strong evidence we’ve presented of its inferior business."

"The market expects FIGS to continue top-line growth in the mid 20% range while accelerating EBITDA margins. As a result, the market ascribes FIGS a rich revenue multiple of approximately 4x. We have shown why we believe there is substantial room for multiple compression."

"Despite a massive revenue decline of $4.8 billion from 2007 to 2012, total G&A expense has actually increased, causing G&A expense as a percentage of revenue to increase from 4.2% to 6.3% and Adjusted EBITDA margins to decline from 5.3% to 3.1% over the same time period."

"Viterra appears to have experienced financial problems between 2022 and 2024. Bunge promoted Viterra's 2022 revenue as $72bn... Later in its 2024 pro forma supplemental, Bunge reported that Viterra's revenue was $44.2bn which is a -17.8% decline over the two-year period."

"We do not believe this adjustment is appropriate as it represents a material element of your customer arrangement (i.e., a sales incentive) and could lead investors to improperly infer that you would have generated the same revenue levels without granting this incentive."

"ESG & Climate segment Adj. EBITDA Margins have increased 720bps from Sept 2022 – 2023 with headcount having grown from under 1,000 to approximately 1,300 according to the Head of ESG. While Retention Rate declines and revenue growth slows, we expect margins to contract."

"We believe that SGHC's multiple is likely to re-rate lower as its revenue and earnings power declines from rising regulatory risks and taxation costs, disruption from prediction markets and concerns about its financial reporting accuracy related to Raging River Trading."

"Related-party “customers” appear to be staffed with what we believe to be loyal, longtime Ginkgo plants in critical positions, who we think rotate from entity to entity to ensure that the entities play ball by round-tripping revenue back to Ginkgo via foundry R&D spend."

"We believe Skechers' revenue growth over the past five years has largely been the product of two very simple and transitory catalysts. Approximately 60% of total revenue growth has come from the international wholesale business, and about half of that from China alone."

"Novartis referred to Twist as “definitely” a commodity vendor, dismissing their NGS offering - now the majority of Twist’s revenue and their key growth driver - as old news: “it’s all standard manufacturing technology”; “these things were already discovered years ago.”"

"Many growth opportunities are available in the space, however, Kao’s best prospects for revenue and profit growth lie in the overseas opportunity set for its derma-skincare, select mass & prestige cosmetic brands; and its largest mass market skin & personal-care names."

"As shown in an excerpt from Intuit’s FY 2024 10-K above, Intuit includes interest revenue in “Service and Other Revenue”, thus prohibiting investors from understanding the scale and trends related to this markedly different revenue stream compared to its core business."

"Specifically, we have found definitive evidence of INS lending money to startups controlled by INS employees in India, then slowly funneling that initial investment back to INS through a network of related Indian and Asian companies, allowing INS to book it as revenue."

"PowerSchool's allowance for doubtful accounts as a percentage of accounts receivable was the second highest observed over the last ten quarters. This is an indication that PowerSchool is either booking low quality revenue and/or customer quality in general may be low."

"With student acquisition costs Increasing (i.e. marketing cost) and a realization amongst investors that “the install base” needs to be replenished every 2 years (i.e. students graduate out of the programs), a mid-range peer multiple of 5.0x to 7.0X revenues is likely"

"We previously raised concerns about a general decline in the financial transparency of Saputo at the corporate level. In addition, we see a further decline of reporting transparency in Australia, where Saputo no longer provides revenue details by product or geography."

"Analyzing Google Trends data over the past three years shows the interest in PBH’s brands are flat. Limited demand combined with limited opportunity for pricing power will result in sluggish revenue growth going forward and hinder PBH’s ability to achieve its targets."

"Amcor trades in excess of its long-term forward EV/EBITDA and in-line with its forward EV/Sales multiple. In the context of evidence that both Amcor and Bemis are experiencing declining revenues, we believe Amcor should trade at a multiple below its long-term average."

"While the revenue came in the quarter was strong, the overall performance of the sales organization and specifically new sales activity in the second quarter was unacceptable. The management team and I have spent the past month restructuring the global sales function"

"Aside from the overall amount of revenue and deferred revenue being implausible - we estimate $6.3MM of deferred revenue per Allonnia employee - the timing of when Ginkgo booked these amounts from Allonnia strains credibility and suggests they are clearly fictitious."

"Investors should be attuned to Aerojet’s large revenue miss in Q4’18 that disappointed investors by nearly 15%. Given our fundamental review of its program and revenue opportunities, we believe this is just the beginning of the revenue disappointment story unfolding."

"However, if Sony Technologies can execute on the growth trajectory laid out at Sony’s 2019 IR Day, we see the potential for the company to: Grow revenue by >50%; Grow operating profit by >100%; Compound value at ~15% annually, and achieve a $35bn valuation in 5 years"

"For the first time in many years, Rollins referenced that termite damage claims have declined. Yet, it has said that revenues have gone up. However, this revenue source could be at risk if consumers perceive that termite protection services are not worth purchasing."

"From Company disclosures regarding the sales histories and pro-forma revenue contributions of recently-acquired businesses, our analysis suggests that Hill-Rom’s acquisitions consistently show top-line contraction immediately following their acquisition by Hill-Rom."

"We believe Agilent's current valuation represents a discount to intrinsic value and does not fully reflect the company's high-quality business model, increasing mix of recurring revenue, strong long-term growth potential and significant margin expansion opportunity"

"Since the investment was made in 3Q18, the difference of RMB 37.6 million was likely recognized as revenues by IQ in the second half of 2018, leaving the remaining RMB 726.155 million available to be used by management to artificially boost its top line, as needed."

"Meanwhile, while DXCM share price appreciation was driven largely by multiple expansion through H1 FY18, the stock has been range-bound since the middle of FY18 despite continued revenue beats, and the multiple has contracted to some extent on recent sales growth."

"Decisions about revenue recognition are among the most important issues faced by senior accounting personnel. At VMware, Munk held a key role as VP and Corporate Controller during a period the Company violated antifraud and reporting provisions of securities laws."

"Google makes most of its money when users exit the Google network. This represents the philosophical antithesis to the walled garden approach in which the objective is to keep the user on the network and earn revenue through display advertising and other services."

"By our best estimate, Waterpik has been another failed acquisition by CHD. In the three full quarters after it was acquired, and the acquisition contribution was disclosed through the consumer segments, we find total revenues declined from $102m, to $85m, to $79m."

"It is a one-trick pony whose sole commercial asset and source of revenue is the US license to an old, toxic drug called pitolisant, marketed as Wakix, that no reputable pharma company would touch – alchemically transformed into $2.5B market cap and 6X LTM revenue."