Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"At the quantities involved here, 2.5 million transaction costs vis-à-vis 40,000 for the opposite party, one can't just say we're so transparent, we've spent so much money, everything's great. This incongruity begs for explanation."

"GM turnover went from 34% the year before Mr. Blum and Mr. Mock started to 4% annual voluntary turnover, plus 5% forced turnover each year to provide room for strong and upcoming junior managers (currently the turnover is 16-17%)."

"strengthen the Board of Directors, adding the necessary capabilities to oversee large capital deployment in areas which are not BP's core business and have BlackRock's non independent director Pamela Daley removed from BP's Board."

"Muddy Waters, LLC has amassed irrefutable evidence that China MediaExpress Holdings, Inc. ("CCME") is a substantial fraud, and that management is engaging in a cover-up replete with further dissemination of fraudulent information."

"..there will be times when CLR may outspend its internally generated cash flow. However, so long as it is earning the returns on investment in the incremental barrel produced by these borrowings... this should be of minor concern."

"Viacom has been a long-term partner, so it'd take a lot for us not to do a deal with them, but they have to be realistic that their ratings have deteriorated over the last three years or four years in some cases in a material way."

"We believe that Ms. Schnabel’s substantial business experience and financial background, coupled with her extensive experience serving as a director of public and private companies, would make her a valuable addition to the Board."

"Both GMCR and MBlock use sub-standard IT systems. Important functions including inventory management are performed in Excel spreadsheets which are easy to change, provide non-standardized analysis, and are prone to material error."

"If the disease itself does not dissipate for another 18 months - regardless of when retail, transportation, and other sectors begin to normal - will people really be willing to return to the orthodontist for an elective procedure?"

"Edgewater's stock price has significantly underperformed a peer group comprised of twenty-eight publicly-traded North American-based IT Consulting companies both in terms of total shareholder return and other key operating metrics"

"DND is a high-quality business with competitive products and cash flows of a similar quality to peers. However, it has significantly underperformed its benchmark indices and self-selected peer group over all relevant time horizons"

"In our model, there is no combination of low single digit Peiyou offline ASP or Peiyou offline-online discount assumptions that yields positive YoY Peiyou offline growth and positive sequential Peiyou online growth simultaneously."

"Skillz's purported partnership with the NFL – announced (only by Skillz, not the NFL) the week of the Superbowl – is consistent with Skillz long history of boasting about “big partnerships” which have amounted to nothing of value."

"C3.ai's updated disclosure in its most recent 10Q regarding the 3rd amendment to the JV contract notes the structure of the arrangement was revised to further incentivize Baker Hughes' sales of the Company's products and services."

"Importantly, we note that, until recently, AT&T was a strategic investor in Amdocs. However, AT&T's position in DOX equity fell below 5% in 2009, and there is no indication that it maintains a material position in the stock today."

"We are concerned that this could give the Company more opportunities to pull forward revenue and to delay expenses, and perhaps that management is applying percentage-of-completion accounting more widely precisely for this reason."

"Rather, management may not be recognizing acquisition-related revenue in a timely manner, but instead recognizing it gradually over time as a source of apparent organic growth. Again, this would be a much more significant offense."

"Given the growing body of scientific evidence and increased public concern for energy drinks, artificial intelligence models that we asked about Monster's health returned answers that slanted towards more negatives than positives."

"After backing out the value of publicly traded MLP interests and the estimated value of other non-refining businesses, Marathon's current trading price implies a significant discount to the trading value of merchant refining peers"

"No matter the ultimate outcome, Agrium shareholders deserve a better process than this, and the current board still has much to explain regarding how it previously evaluated Retail acquisitions and the company's overall structure."

"Based on concerning actions taken by the current Board over the past few months, shareholders should have no reason to believe these directors have the strength and independence to hold management accountable for its new promises."

"We believe that Ms. Schnabel’s substantial business experience and financial background, coupled with her extensive experience serving as a director of public and private companies, would make her a valuable addition to the Board."

"If international growth is a pillar of the growth story sold to investors, wouldn't regular disclosure and information related to fees and pricing power be critically important to assisting investors in evaluating its performance?"

"I think Meetrics was a crap company to acquire. Sorry to be blunt. When you're verification with little competition in Europe and small, after a decade of presence, especially in Germany. Its closed off and they like to buy local."

"Kornit has obscured the rebate terms received from Amazon, and the amount it recognizes in its income statement, but says that it accounts for rebates on “historical experience” or “specific terms and conditions of the incentive”."

"Given that the turnover in the auditor, audit committee, and CFO position occurred while SPRD was in the midst of a stunning turnaround, did the resignations and removal have anything to do with discomfort about SPRD’s accounting?"

"We estimate that more aggressive tax maneuvers (i.e. discrete items) by BR in FY 2022 resulted in approximately $20.6 million of cash flow benefits. We believe there are long-term limits to how much lower BR can push tax benefits."

"IQVIA executive slams BLI’s instrument based on feedback from large pharma/biotech users: “old,” completely outdated,” “not very user friendly,” “prone to errors,” “cumbersome,” and states AI and machine learning claims are bogus."

"Our estimates are significantly below the Street in 2022. We also eliminate all the "noise" of Stryker's adjustments, which we believe are covering-up financial strains and allowing results to rapidly diverge from GAAP financials."

"We do not believe the market fully appreciates the rising challenges that Rollins is likely to face from an onslaught of private equity money competing for deals and capable of driving up valuations for actionable quality targets."

"Spruce Point believes there is significant downside risk to ROAD’s share price as its premium multiple is reconsidered by institutional investors in the face of our strong evidence to indicate that it is masking growing pressures."

"HGV's EBITDA growth is severely reduced by Diamond's slower growth business. HGV is forecasting 16% EBITDA growth on a standalone basis annually between 2022 and 2025 while Diamond standalone is only forecasted to grow 4% annually"

"Our diligence leads us to believe that CSC is likely non-substantive and effectively an alter ego of IQE, supporting our view that IQE's economic reality is more appropriately understood by adjusting for the transactions with CSC."

"A senior Genomatica employee told us clearly and unequivocally that they have never paid Ginkgo cash for foundry R&D services, and are simply using R&D credits provided after large investments by Viking and Ginkgo into Genomatica."

"Spruce Point has conducted a thorough forensic review of the Amcor / Bemis transaction, including management's bold claims for the transaction. Our analysis either disproves, or calls into question, each of the main selling points"

"TransMedics National OCS Program (NOP) is, we believe, a large-scale fraudulent billing conspiracy whereby customers - transplant centers and organ procurement organizations (OPO's) - are overcharged for its air transport service."

"BEF Foods has demonstrated remarkable growth in overall profitability... but this is going un-recognized by the investment community, who continue to fixate on the negative same store sales performance of the Restaurants business:"

"While Mr. Shaw may have correctly identified service improvement as the guiding light to growth and profitability, he has selected a misguided strategy that does not improve network fluidity, trip plan compliance or profitability."

"Mr. Barber has a track record of growth and significant experience in operations, supply chain, strategic planning, employee relations and risk management from his 35-year career as a leader in the shipping and logistics industry."

"Looking at the unadjusted dividend yield of STB of 8.3% is not relevant because of STB's shorter history and significantly younger vehicle fleet, which results in unusually low maintenance capex that will rise as their fleet ages."

"Perhaps in recognition of the fact that Dollarama is losing its status as a true dollar store, and that it now belongs to a different category, management has stricken almost all references to “dollar stores” from Company filings."

"Dollarama has zero social media presence, unlike all of its peers. Not only is the Company out of touch with customers in an industry which demands a high level of customer engagement, but its brand is becoming demonstrably stale."

"the basis of efficacy and FDA approval is nothing more than a sharp and rather fortuitous separation in HQ-CT scores in placebo arm (n=39) vs. DCCR (n=38) in the last 4 weeks of the 16-week withdrawal period (+4.5 pbo, +0.4 DCCR)."

"Therefore, our PK modeling leads us to conclude that Vykat is inferior from a PK standpoint vs. regular diazoxide – diazoxide has such a long half life that an extended-release version actually worsens its bioavailability profile."

"The researcher was diplomatic but clearly negative about Soleno’s opportunity, indicating that patient enthusiasm was modest at best, and that families are already discussing and are highly concerned about the drug’s side effects."

"LSPD was the only Company among its close peers talking about "quick" and "rapid" growth starting in April 2020. Other peers gave a more muted perspective, with one saying it really took until late June/July to see an improvement."

"The things that made Mortara what it was disappeared after the acquisition. The entrepreneurial culture was lost.... Sales people who were familiar with the flagship product were dropped, and it didn't sell as well under Hill-Rom."

"It’s like racketeering or something, right? That’s what it feels like...I’m sure other surgeons have used some pretty dramatic words...they’re playing like mafia-style...very deliberate and a thug-style way of getting things done."

"TransMedics strikes us as textbook case whereby it appears that customers are 1) forced to pay for a NOP service they do not want... and 2) to do so at a higher price than if they purchased each service themselves versus a bundle."

"From the inception of our short position on May 1, 2012, HLF stock declined by 13% (including dividends), and from our average cost basis prior to the position being made public, HLF stock increased 4%; extreme volatility persists"

"This statement by non-other than the founder of Jiazhang Jia, coupled with our findings that job postings shared the same business addresses as GSX reaffirms our suspicion that Jiazhang Jia is a company that channels sales to GSX."

"Auditors for both KLA and Lam recently noted inventory valuation as the one and only Critical Audit Matter in their last audit opinions, a designation reserved for the highest-risk and most material areas in the financial reports."

"Phillips 66's (NYSE: PSX) conglomerate structure gives investors the worst of both worlds. The business doesn't benefit from refining upside to the same degree as pure-play peer Valero, but still has the same downside volatility."

"The formation of Cooper and Cesario's entity to run the fraud, CCMGRX, LLC was Sept 2014, one month prior to the formation of CCMS Payments (d/b/a Fifth Manhattan) and at the exact same address of 5050 Quorum Drive in Dallas, TX."

"Spruce Point believes GFL obscures what it is paying for “platform” deals because it has substantially overpaid. Instead, it points investors in its IPO document to an “average adjusted” EBITDA multiple of 7.0x for over 100 deals"

"After reviewing PR Industrial’s Italian filings there is a reference to a reclassification to the income statement without adequate explanation. As of the date of this report publication, PR Industrial has not filed 2021 results."

"His 40- plus years of global operating experience, financial expertise, consistent performance and an impressive track record serving on the boards of directors of public companies, will make him a valuable addition to the Board."

"AMT have shown little regard for shareholder value when investing in the Brazilian market, its two main investments appear to be classic cases of knee jerk acquisitions with no regard to potential risks and minimal due diligence."

"AFFO has become the metric of choice in comparing AMT with other REITs, however, it cannot be stressed enough that, as per NAREIT, there is no one methodology of calculating AFFO and rarely will one be comparing apples to apples."

"While we are pleased to learn that, albeit with unfortunate delay, BP is begrudgingly doing exactly what we have been requesting since October 2023 - de facto recognizing the failure of the strategy adopted by a complacent Board."