Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"Confirmed problems around false positives and errors; instrument has “fairly significant limitations” and requires “a ton of upfront work” to be usable; amount of optimization and tweaking makes people “really, really hesitate to invest.”"

"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."

"Samsung stated they pay about $40MM for each Lasertec machine, which implies $80-120MM of revenue at most - insufficient to maintain Lasertec's growth and valuation as Samsung is one of the three legs of the customer stool they depend on."

"Rollins has been increasing its discussion of auto accidents and insurance as a headwind to margins, and recently modified its Critical Audit Matter discussion on the topic. We believe this will continue to weigh on margins going forward."

"FTSE index inclusion can be expected to drive new buying demand from index trackers and other passive investors which should have a positive impact on the share price and help narrow the discount to NAV at which PSH shares currently trade"

"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"

"Comments by current Joyn employees and ex-Ginkgo employees indicates that Ginkgo and its related parties are intermingled; that the relationship is anything but arms-length; and resembles nothing like a typical vendor-customer arrangement"

"The companies with which we engage benefit from Elliott's diverse team of specialized experts in public relations, shareholder engagement, corporate governance, private equity, capital markets, credit, real estate and government relations"

"Given our concerns about the reliability of Aerojet’s Adjusted EBITDAP, we believe the most conservative way to value the Company is on its revenues, which we can estimate with insights from the defense budget and current rocket programs."

"A number of KOL’s stated their belief that Nevro’s high frequency mechanism of action is uniquely dangerous versus conventional low frequency stimulators, a finding supported by extensive posts in Nevro patient support groups on Facebook."

"We note that speakers programs which are essentially kickback schemes are illegal, e.g., the recent criminal convictions of Insys Therapeutics executives and some of their high volume KOL's, in connection with the "Insys Speakers Bureau.""

"Spruce Point has a track record in the airport security services sector with a critical report on Leidos where we questioned the merits and financial reporting quality of the acquired L3Harris' security, detection and automation business."

"Vivion has engaged in highly convoluted shell games whereby its controlling shareholders flip entities in and out of the Vivion structure, sometimes after absurdly short holding periods (e.g., 18 days in the case of the RWI4 transaction)."

"Losses would need to exceed $600bn before both first-loss private capital and PSPA funding would be extinguished, or ~23x adjusted cumulative losses in the single-family guarantee segment during the Great Financial Crisis (i.e. 2007-2011)"

"And thus Soleno and Gevers, Miller et al are caught red-handed: the new dataset contains both HbA1c and fasting glucose charts, but it appears they forgot to alter the fasting glucose one - which shows the new HbA1c data is a fabrication."

"Thinks generic diazoxide suspension is no different than Vykat and that the field will soon figure this out; that Soleno has provided no convincing answer for why its tablet formulation is necessary; that it is just a cynical patent ploy."

"In a March interview with a prominent biotech journalist, Miller’s portrayal of the drug strikes us as excessive: “life altering”; “these are things you’d never see in people with Prader-Willi Syndrome before this drug...it’s remarkable.”"

"In light of multiple financial anomalies in LSPD's reporting, Spruce Point questions why would it hire Nussey, an executive who went through a financial scandal and turnaround experience, to lead it through an IPO into the public markets?"

"The table provides some clues to why they have not been forthcoming with proper PK data, as it shows dramatic plasma variability from patient to patient within each subgroup - orders of magnitude greater than the tight range on the label."

"Setting aside that we disagree with QTT on the business discussion around Dianguan, we again find ourselves focusing on what QTT didn’t respond to and doesn’t seem to want to discuss: Dianguan was an undisclosed related party transaction."

"FTSE index inclusion can be expected to drive new buying demand from index trackers and other passive investors which should have a positive impact on the share price and help narrow the discount to NAV at which PSH shares currently trade"

"Because the government is Capella's main customer, IONQ could also conflate Capella's meaningless satellite revenue numbers with the unannounced missing Pentagon quantum computing and networking revenues, effectively covering up the hole."

"Samsung stated they pay about $40MM for each Lasertec machine, which implies $80-120MM of revenue at most – insufficient to maintain Lasertec’s growth and valuation as Samsung is one of the three legs of the customer stool they depend on."

"We are short the securities of TeliaSonera because we believe information that is being withheld from investors, along with the current board and management's (in)actions, will significantly impact the company's shares and credit profile."

"Beyond just using stock images of purported customers, Remitly has also used the same name with two different images, and even the same image with two different names. This increases our suspicion that customer testimonials are doctored."

"Based on recent data from Apptopia, which may reflect some seasonality, we see a significant year-over-year decline in Remitly’s downloads and engagement. By comparison, Wise download and daily active user growth has been more resilient."

"Spruce Point observes that Nuvei just restated a key disclosure related to its concentration risk of receivables and didn't draw attention to the revision. Receivables are closely related to sales, which we pointed out are being revised."

"Spruce Point is hard-pressed to find much differentiation in the scrubs products being offered by FIGS and its competitors. Below is a sample of just a few select competitors. In fact, almost everyone is offering 10-20% off first orders."

"In contrast to the perception that FIGS is a hypergrowth company on the verge of rapid global expansion into every country, we find evidence that its global headcount growth is stalling, and just twenty eight domestic job openings exist."

"Spruce Point has a track record of producing critical and thought-provoking research related to highly promoted public companies implementing North American roll-up strategies in energy, alternative energy, and ESG industrial businesses."

"We can only conclude two things from this fact pattern. Either: 1) By February 2011... the CEO search committee... had already determined that Mr. Austrian would become the permanent CEO... 2) The Board's governance is seriously lacking."

"When combining this convertible preferred equity issuance with the previously completed convertible debt financing, in downside scenarios, the Board has now created $845 million in liabilities in exchange for raising unnecessary capital."

"Beyond questioning the novelty of the HYDROS “AI”, one surgeon even believes that the added workload of a surgeon using HYDROS might actually LENGTHEN procedure time. This calls into question one of the bull case arguments around HYDROS."

"The main thing that confuses me is when companies on the front pages of their annual report always show any adjusted earnings or EBITDA and do not show what really interests me as a shareholder, namely EBIT and what is there after taxes."

"This stark and recent case study brings up several questions: How can a $2bn revenue segment of ADP have margins which are >80% below optimal levels? What does this say about ADP's corporate operating efficiency, culture, and governance?"

"We believe LongHorn needs to reduce the prep items that customers are not giving them credit for, and focus their labor efforts on what customers actually care about. Estimated total savings from reducing prep costs is $6.5 – $12 million"

"We are surprised that after a decade of R&D and hundreds of millions of dollars spent, that Quantumscape is showing fast charge data for a single-layer lab-scale prototype that appears to have a fraction of the capacity of a hearing aid."

"A former employee in a key scientific role, who interacted with Chapman, echoed comments by others that Chapman is rarely at the offices; that “Peter doesn’t do quantum”; and that “I don’t really know about his background all that much.”"

"With the Libre set to add an alarm, and with differences between Dexcom's and Abbott's accuracy not significant, the medical professionals with whom we spoke see little room for material differentiation between the Libre 2 and the G5/G6."

"Abbott's FreeStyle Libre gained FDA Approval on September 27, 2017 and was launched commercially in 2018. We estimate that the Libre now has 38% market share and has already passed Dexcom after just one full year of commercial operation."

"Shares of DHI and INVH appear to be compelling opportunities today, each down more than 20% from their highs earlier this year despite encouraging real-time data points and secular demand drivers strengthened as a result of the pandemic."

"If Norfolk Southern's claims of having a PSR operating model right now were true, the Company's operating and financial metrics would not materially lag those of CSX and Class I peers (before and after the East Palestine, Ohio disaster)."

"We want Norfolk Southern to run a strategy that prioritizes reliable, safe railroading – not a strategy that has resulted in some of the industry’s worst performance and the only recent major derailment that has decimated an entire town."

"We believe LongHorn needs to reduce the prep items that customers are not giving them credit for, and focus their labor efforts on what customers actually care about. Estimated total savings from reducing prep costs is $6.5 – $12 million"

"The market has demonstrated investors’ support for change on literally a daily basis with Arconic’s shares trading higher whenever Elliott has issued a letter and declining each time the Board has reiterated its support for Dr. Kleinfeld"

"In December 2019, we reviewed the 96,432 YY Live PUs that XHL tracks. Our analysis found that 24.9% of these PUs were controlled by YY. We further found that their gift contributions accounted for 48.0% of the gift revenue in our sample."

"Spruce Point believes that frequent segment shuffling is a classic red flag and we find that Zebra has made multiple shuffles. When we evaluate the revisions, we see that it has twice moved product lines that exhibited declining margins."

"AMC's EBITDAR to Rent is well below O's corporate average of 2.7x and has weakened significantly in the most recent YTD period. The equity markets have already identified the theater level risk: AMC's stock is down ~64% from January 2017"

"The model is simple – Twist investors on one side, customers on the other, and Twist as the middleman flipping cash from capital raises to customers to create “revenue,” with insiders pocketing a vig for the trouble via stock-based comp."

"Twist’s chip requires an amplification step to compensate for its inability to meaningful amounts of DNA, which “impedes their ability to make a “consistent product” from lot to lot – “they need consistency, they need fewer lot numbers.”"

"In the current melee the opposite seems true: illiquid assets are more valuable because it is easier to convince the accountants that they have not declined in value compared to liquid assets where there is more transparent pricing data."

"Despite an economic recession in 2001-2003, significant dips in McDonald’s system wide same-store sales growth and declines in McDonald’s stock prices, the Real Estate and Franchise business has grown every year over the last five years."

"We believe there are numerous reasons why HIMS revenue multiple is likely to contract closer to its e-commerce peer group and see potential for 25% - 40% downside risk, and more if regulators were to take issue with HIMS operating model."

"With ~$11bn of debt maturities coming due by 2012, we note that Simon has meaningful liquidity risk. We believe that Simon’s current valuation reflects a downward adjustment for liquidity risk and the likelihood of future equity dilution"

"PBF has 60% capacity coming from disadvantaged markets. This leads to the Company being a high-cost peer with almost no EBITDA during 2024 (mid-cycle approximation). As such, PBF trades at a substantial discount to other public refiners."

"DV refers to brands and customers interchangeably. However, one customer can have multiple brands. A DV former employee Spruce Point interviewed expressed a belief there was an internal misunderstanding of what was considered a customer."

"The nature of the above (right) transactions, and the fact that some of these agencies are Momo owned entities, creates uncertainty around accounting treatment and opens the door for potentially illegal activities (e.g. money laundering)"

"In light of our interview of a former TASK Business Development employee who claimed that TASK's technology offerings were a step behind peers, we find it notable that TASK recently retracted benefit claims related to its core offerings."

"A “substantial” amount of the product purchased from Herbalife is never sold at retail. For the purpose of our analysis, we conservatively assume that means 30%, though the true amount of Internal Consumption could be meaningfully higher"

"Firms such as Tyler Technologies, CentralSquare, and Motorola have spent north of $1B acquiring most of the strongest software vendors in the CAD, RMS, and AI verticals, leaving few (if any) remaining high-quality M&A prospects for Axon."