Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"Why should PetIQ shares trade at more than double pharmaceutical distributor multiples when near-term sales growth is more likely to be 9-11% than 15-20%, and when the Company's outsized margins appear to depend entirely on at-risk vendor rebates?"

"In an effort to avoid admitting a large miss, management has recently started stating that "to get to its mid-cycle EBITDA PSX needs adjusted gross margin of $14.50/bbl,"(1) a level that even VLO (best-in-class operator) is not expected to achieve"

"Abbott is actively working to improve the Libre's internal software, which should help to narrow any disadvantage created by the current accuracy difference, and thus to erase the market's perception of the Libre as a technologically-inferior CGM."

"Contrary to the Company's messaging, this latest deal with Pathos is not a true extension of the AstraZeneca relationship, but rather a restructuring that we believe underscores the ongoing erosion of the commitment between Tempus and AstraZeneca."

"We find it borderline unethical that Tempus designs its requisition forms in a way that encourages physicians to order tests that may not always be clinically necessary, potentially prioritizing reimbursement over patient-centered decision-making."

"They responded to higher oil prices with even more aggressive capital spending, financed ever more cheaply by Wall Street. The result was that higher oil prices led to even greater cash burn. Last year, with $100 oil, the group burned $20 billion."

"Spruce Point finds that sourcing clear aligners from a third-party 3D printing lab rather than from Align results in significant cost savings for effectively all dentists and orthodontists, even after accounting for Align’s volume-based discounts."

"Spruce Point believes that there is a high probability that, come next week, these two hospitals will elect not to renew their current terms beyond Sep 2020, and will instead demand higher sharebacks from Premier or elect for another GPO entirely."

"Granted coal prices were soft in 2019 and fell into 2020 during the pandemic, but this did not lead many coal companies to drastically reduce their proven and probable reserves – except for AMR which cut proven and probable reserves by almost 50%."

"In a 2018 article covering a visit by the Beijing Fujian Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Su introduced his company and its relationship with ANTA plainly stating that Beijing Jiyuan Shengbao is a part of Anta and is its self-operated retailer in Beijing."

"Our interpretation of these transactions is that there was a premeditated scheme to convey PT ALH to PT Atlas, generate unjustified and substance-less accounting gains for Noble along the way, and then ultimately purge the company of the evidence."

"Twist’s pricing is so reckless that it attempts to undercut even ultra-cheap, ultra-low cost Chinese DNA manufacturers like Genscript, where an executive told us he was “was shocked” at Twist’s list prices, doubting they “will ever be profitable.”"

"What’s made this convergence of brands even more difficult is that BNY still operates with a multitude of “boutique” brands under its Investment Management wing - 14 as of today - most of which are not recognizable as a part of the parent company."

"We believe such an ownership stake could either be a CPoM violation (if they are domiciled in states with a 100% physician ownership threshold) or an undisclosed related-party transaction, as no such ownership stake is mentioned in the HIMS proxy."

"FND management recently claimed it would have over 1,000 designers by the end of 2023. However, after reaching 935 designers in Q3, the total count abruptly declined to 904 designers by year end. The Company no longer discloses the designer count."

"In negotiating this agreement, TWX did not appear to consider a number of other potential alternatives, including a spin-off, spin-merge or sale of the entire AOL business that could have achieved higher value for TWX shareholders and the Company."

"The enterprise value of TWC is estimated to be $43.3 - $48.5 billion (which incorporates the value of cable systems that are 100% owned by TWC and the value of TWC's unconsolidated assets) based on the implied multiples derived from this analysis."

"DV ceased a key disclosure about revenue facilitated through programmatic partnerships. It appears they've become increasingly dependent on two partnerships, which we believe is adding greater business risk and financial pressures to its business."

"We believe Mr. Garden’s demonstrated record of strong operating experience and his network of significant institutional relationships can be utilized for the Company’s benefit and makes him extremely well qualified to serve on the Company’s board."

"There are many data points to cast doubt on the accuracy of Axon's margins beyond it having recently reported a material weakness tied to revenue recognition and cost of sales, fail to promptly address SEC comment letters, and have its CFO resign."

"With significant exposure to global industrial end markets (notably China), we believe it is highly unlikely that results reflect consistent, perfect execution, but rather reflect aggressive accounting and financial practices that aid performance."

"The relationship between IQ’s deferred revenues and realized revenues is the opposite of what we would expect based on their claims – the realized revenue curve consistently leads the deferred revenue curve and the gap between the two is widening."

"A leader with the skills and experience to build the next chapter for TIM, accelerating the transformation from mainly a connectivity business to becoming a key strategic player for the digitization of Italy on the enterprise, PA and consumer side"

"We believe hematocrit is omitted from the paper in order to avoid providing evidence that would undermine the claim to renal health improvement, because hematocrit could show that even the few positive metrics here are artifacts of blood dilution."

"The application of fair value accounting for the SanReno JV is a convenient mechanism by which Chinook can inflate its revenues and decrease its expenses, minimizing its near-term losses and setting itself up for potential future profit inflation."

"the fundamental challenge is dollars per kilogram," and by that metric, it simply costs a lot more to launch a single small rocket with a single small satellite than it does to launch a single large rocket bundling many small satellites aboard it."

"Because savers perceive interest income as more recurring than volatile stock market gains, and because interest income is spread more broadly than equity gains, it’s fair to assume that a much greater proportion of interest income would be spent."

"Given that Juniper failed to meet its prior cost reduction target by a wide margin, a significant amount of detail and conviction from management will be necessary to ensure that investors and Street analysts understand that this time is different"

"There are doctors in the landscape with a lot of influence who are completely corrupt who are on board with Saluda. And they will corrupt people with Saluda. They own stock and options in Saluda and have consulting contracts. Saluda is everywhere."

"Saluda’s approach – personalize stimulation not only by patient but second by second – is the polar opposite of and a frontal challenge to Nevro’s entire reason for existence: a gimmicky one-size fits all approach based on a fixed 10kHz frequency."

"In addition to competitive pressure from scaling private PE platforms, an industry expert we spoke with noted that one of the biggest risks he sees for companies like Limbach is large OEM companies expanding their service and solutions businesses."

"After examining a number of records manually and matching them up with the User Numbers identified for teachers and tutors, we found that the user type field tells us teachers are identified as “Type=1, tutors as “Type=2” and students as “Type=0.”"

"When the center delayed payment, the executive alleged that members of TransMedics management team – COO Tamer Khayal and OCS liver head Magdy Attia – attempted to pressure them for payment by holding a heart hostage from an ICU transplant patient"

"Just six months later, after PPG completed the split-off of its commodity business, PPG "RemainCo" re-rated to an 18x NTM P/E multiple, representing a ~40% multiple expansion (the blended multiple of the two businesses rose to 17x, a 33% increase)"

"Norfolk Southern cannot initiate a proper PSR implementation and related strategy without (i.) installing operationally proficient leadership, (ii.) abandoning its “resilience” model and (iii.) committing to an infrastructure and network overhaul."

"As unfathomable as this is, Bennett's employment was terminated "without cause" (a "for cause" termination would have reduced the payment), a shocking decision considering he led the company through both a bankruptcy and the Bonanza Creek debacle."

"Wing Lung Bank (“WLB”) represents an example of a Hong Kong bank which was formerly family-owned, the performance of which has substantially improved after being acquired at the end of 2008 by a larger financial group, namely China Merchants Bank."

"Das hochrangige Management hat Insiderinformationen und Einfluss auf die Nachrichten. Wenn ein Mitbegründer und Vorstandsmitglied aktiv gegen das Aufwärtspotenzial des von ihm geführten Unternehmens wettet, erfordert dies eine behördliche Prüfung."

"Genius has secured partnerships with a large number of sports leagues in 2020, including 20 new partnerships since the beginning of October. Our conversions with experts reveal these partners are unlikely to pay meaningful cash revenue to Genius."

"Starboard believes Mr. Cwynar’s experience as the former chief executive officer of a semiconductor product and licensing company, as well as his technology and engineering background, will enable him to provide invaluable oversight to the Board."

"Red Flag: Beware of insider selling when the company is buying. The last period of MPWR's share repurchases were in 2012-2015. This is the same period Chang's ownership effectively went to zero. CEO Hsing made his largest stock sale ever in 2015."

"We are surprised that the sell side seems to think that gross margin in the product segment could expand through the coming years despite the strong relative growth of sales of distributed product vs. manufactured product, as cited by management."

"As a result of its efforts, BEF Foods is nearly 90% vertically integrated and recent restructuring initiatives have contributed to an increase in operating income for this segment from $16.0 million in Fiscal 2009 to $30.8 million in Fiscal 2013."

"Plante & Moran’s Forensic and Valuation Services (FVS) team members possess accounting, auditing, economic, financial, investigative, and litigation experience to help uncover fraud and accurately measure and quantify the amount of economic loss."

"Target’s board decided not to transfer credit risk in a credit card transaction, despite Pershing Square’s repeated requests. In 2008, Target’s credit card operating profits fell 65% predominantly due to increased credit risk and bad debt expense"

"We see ~45-60% near-term downside in DXCM as the U.S. T1 market is increasingly exhausted, as Dexcom fails to participate in the growth of the U.S. T2 CGM market, and as the release of the Libre 2 brings downward pricing pressure on the industry."

"McDonald's allows the use of gestation crates up until a sow is confirmed to be pregnant, which can take up to six weeks of its pregnancy and is a complete shift from its stated commitment in 2012, which had a goal of eliminating gestation crates"

"On May 16, 2022 CEO Stetson filed a Form 4 notifying investors that he sold 65,000 shares on March 9, 2022 at $120.79. This disclosure is more than two months after the sale! Something is still irreconcilable with CEO Stetson’s ownership filings."

"Warning: Recall from our interview of a former Oatly employee with knowledge of its finance and accounting, issues were raised about problems with inventory accounting and recent changes in policy made, though not disclosed in the IPO prospectus."

"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."

"If one simply adds back to COGS the direct manufacturing costs we believe it is misclassifying via a Worldcom-esque accounting scheme, its gross margin is negative – consistent with color from ex-employees, competitors, and manufacturing experts."

"In the 55 years since Aerojet acquired the land, civilization has encroached such that it is now in a very desirable location, adjacent to a main highway, adjacent to public transportation, and close to schools and retail and commercial districts"

"We estimate that within the five year period ending June 2022, in addition to the continuation of the current 50% dividend payout ratio, the Value Unlock Plan could result in: a total of c.US$33bn being returned to shareholders via share buybacks"

"Our criticism of FND's deficient disclosures extend to its Board relationships and related party dealings. For example, despite Peter Starrett serving on both the Boards of Floor & Decor and Boot Barn, FND fails to disclose that it sells to BOOT."

"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"

"Based on our significant number of live stream related interviews, we believe that the Street's base case is materially overstating Live Video and Mobile Marketing revenues while understating costs of revenues associated with Live Video services."

"With customers ranging from public schools to municipalities to small businesses, FleetCor is selling a carbon neutral program when in reality they are pocketing nearly all the money at a level that will most certainly bring criminal indictments."

"MSCI either made misleading or erroneous claims about its ESG business by originally stating that its origins were from 1972 and later revising the statement to 1988. MSCI also no longer claims that ESG is "Better investments for a better world"."

"In 2014, there was no disclosure about significant asset disposal gains in Other Operating Income, leading us to believe that substantially all of the gains were excluded from Other Operating Income, and therefore are included in Casino's EBITDA."

"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."