Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"WD-40 represents a highly asymmetric risk / reward given current extreme valuation and lack of analysts exercising skepticism or having conducted a rigorous forensic analysis of the Company's financial condition."

"On the contrary, we believe that BHP continuing to own certain US petroleum assets, such as BHP’s US onshore division (“US Onshore”), is a distraction for management and investors which inhibits shareholder value"

"C3 materially changed its TAM claim during the IPO process from $170 to $271 billion. In addition, its historical TAM claims don't appear to have been achieved and keep getting pushed out farther into the future."

"C3's apps on Microsoft's Azure marketplace contain just one review since 2019. The core C3 AI Suite is currently being promoted for free. C3 is not even listed as a "Featured" partner under AI + Machine Learning."

"As Phillips 66 acquired midstream assets at dilutive multiples, and management and Board focus has shifted away from refining, underperformance vs. Phillips 66's core peers (Valero and Marathon), has accelerated."

"Changes in percentage-of-completion-related balance sheet accounts contributed more than 2.5% of quarterly revenue four times since Q1 FY 2016, and more than 5% three times, contributing up to 7.8% in Q3 FY 2016."

"We believe that Mr. Ross brings extensive senior leadership roles at family-owned, private equity sponsored and publicly-owned companies in addition to significant operational experience in the industrials space."

"Agrium's board failed to address obvious issues – such as disclosure and capital return – until publicly challenged to do so, and has spent significant shareholder capital to avoid discussing the remaining issues"

"Extending Mr. Iger's contract, shortly after stating it was initially for two years, has given investors another reason to question the Company's succession process and the Board's overreliance on one individual."

"We believe the Board should ensure that a core part of Disney’s strategy is a focus on delighting its Parks guests – as Disney continues to charge a premium price, it must ensure it is providing a premium service"

"Beware of stealth revisions to key operational metrics, especially when there were no changes to the definition of the key metric and the revisions make things look better. Why didn't TASK call out this revision?"

"The $581 million downgrade of Nkran and Esaase was largely offset by upgrades to satellite pits that relied in part on increasing the assumed gold price to $2,000 / oz., which is way out of line with AKG’s peers."

"We believe that the lack of stability among Hill-Rom leadership reflects the lack of stability in the business: there are few anchors to Company strategy besides the self-bestowed mandate to pursue perpetual M&A."

"Under “Client Goals”, BR stopped reporting a quantitative measure of revenue retention between the 2020 and 2021 Proxy Statement. In addition, for the first time it introduced a focus on its “Net Promoter Score”."

"Spruce Point believes that the recent deceleration in Forescout's growth is largely a product of the Company's failure to keep pace with industry trends, which will continue to weigh on performance going forward."

"Revenues are basically flat over the last 4 quarters – a striking fact for a “growth” stock; losses have doubled and are accelerating; gross and operating margins have tanked, falling sequentially in each period."

"The lack of evidence for both the gain and tax accrual in SAIC financials, MoE financials, and credit reports support our conclusion that the boomerang of GZ 1-1 was fraudulent asset parking and lacked substance."

"Details within a 2016 Chinese lawsuit independently corroborate that TAL not only continued to lease GZ 1-1 learning center space after the time of the purported disposal, but was also paying the rent in advance."

"It is impossible to know the amounts of losses on its associates Fairfax avoided by stuffing them into RiverStone, and presumably, much of these losses would have been recouped eventually as the market recovered."

"In the absence of second-by-second trading updates and so that investors don't feel wronged that we may close out a lot of a position very quickly after publishing, just assume that that is exactly what we'll do."

"As Phillips 66 acquired midstream assets at dilutive multiples, and management and Board focus has shifted away from refining, underperformance vs. Phillips 66's core peers (Valero and Marathon), has accelerated."

"Consistent, cash-generating trading business combined with higher growth project development business. Both require low working capital while having significant synergies with other SCT segments and Samsung Group"

"By removing a separate line item labelled “capitalized development expenditure” in its 1H 2017 interim report, IQE has made it impossible for investors to determine the amount of costs capitalized in that period."

"The findings of the recent Audit Committee investigation demonstrate that Autodesk’s leadership team apparently took actions to intentionally mislead shareholders in an attempt to reach certain financial targets."

"The findings of the recent Audit Committee investigation demonstrate that Autodesk’s leadership team apparently took actions to intentionally mislead shareholders in an attempt to reach certain financial targets."

"The findings of the recent Audit Committee investigation demonstrate that Autodesk’s leadership team apparently took actions to intentionally mislead shareholders in an attempt to reach certain financial targets."

"The findings of the recent Audit Committee investigation demonstrate that Autodesk’s leadership team apparently took actions to intentionally mislead shareholders in an attempt to reach certain financial targets."

"Based on a new addition to PBH's 2020 Proxy Statement, we believe PBH is warning investors that the business is not recession proof and is expecting to face challenges as a result of the macroeconomic environment"

"Loss of Diageo + failure to grow branded spirits will result in investors realizing that MGPI is nothing more than a commodity ingredient producer which should be valued at a 14x-16x P/E and 8x-9x EBITDA multiple"

"Spruce Point finds it extremely suspicious that LHCG would amend its organic growth definition to exclude the sales contribution of a single acquisition, however material, which is well past its anniversary date."

"Did the shifting of AFAM employees and customers (existing and prospective) to legacy LHCG locations superficially boost reported organic growth by drawing away from the still-inorganic AFAM part of the business?"

"At the time of our presentation, athena was beginning to enter the inpatient or hospital market, through a new service which would take over a hospital’s admissions, referrals, and other administrative functions."

""Depressed"? That is quite an understatement given the $15 million decline represented 12% of reported revenue in 2019. And why does discussion of Tri-Heart reference its inclusion in different reported segments?"

"Kao could bring its Cash Conversion Cycle and Non-Cash Working Capital (relative to sales) down dramatically and free up over JPY 150bn by 2027 versus 2024 levels that could be better spent on growth initiatives."

"As important though, do the remaining six brands ALL fit Hasebe's 2021 criteria of JPY5bn revenue, 15% operating margin and growth? If not, would it not be better to pool resources into Biore and Jergens instead?"

"Technology companies have operated differently – particularly some of the largest, most successful companies. They have accumulated enormous amounts of cash that sit idle on their balance sheets for years on end."

"We believe the Board should ensure that a core part of Disney’s strategy is a focus on delighting its Parks guests – as Disney continues to charge a premium price, it must ensure it is providing a premium service"

"Our interpretation is that Vitek paid (including in loans) a total to Eurocraft of €16.0 million, received a brand new superyacht, and then got CPI PG to reimburse him at least €8.8 million in the form of a loan."

"the SEC process to approve the merger is not on a near-term path to a favorable resolution; it has been irrevocably derailed, and the deal is effectively facing termination as the SEC investigation gathers steam."

"Limbach's removal of its key customer and customer count disclosures raises concerns about transparency, particularly as the Company has undergone a significant transformation to its revenue base in recent years."

"Limbach's removal of its key customer and customer count disclosures raises concerns about transparency, particularly as the Company has undergone a significant transformation to its revenue base in recent years."

"Against this backdrop, we believe the pursuit of growth through expensive acquisitions of non-core, money-losing businesses has been misguided and has resulted in the destruction of substantial shareholder value."

"The “delays” appear intentional to force the center to pay for a second TransMedics plane versus traveling with the procurement team, as well as driven by incompetence that may result in stranded and lost organs."

"Spruce Point has written four critical activist reports in Canada. In a majority of the cases, the share price has met or exceeded our downside estimate of intrinsic value. The average share price decline is 57%."

"The 13-week Phase 3 with 127 ITT patients dwindled to 83 by the end of the 52-week open-label extension, to 77 in the 16-week withdrawal study, to 60 start forms – leading us to infer a >50% discontinuation rate."

"Why did Kao subvert its own standards and only have the same two members of the Committee for the Examination of Director Nominees interview the Oasis candidates instead of the full five members of the Committee?"

"Rarely do we see such direct and public jabs made between two public companies. It caught our attention when Shopify’s CTO recently tweeted directly at LSPD to criticize it as a “non-developer friendly platform”."

"The amortization of landfill airspace for the twelve months ending December 31, 2019 has a $35.0 million one-time adjustment which if excluded, would result in an average landfill amortization per tonne of $15.1."

"Endocrinologist feels “hypocritical” for prescribing the drug given his reservations; willing to prescribe to desperate families pushing for it, but no interest in appealing insurer denials given lack of efficacy"

"The Income Statement tracks profitability while the Cash Flow Statement tracks cash movements. The Cash Flow Statement bridges Net Income, which is the punchline number from Income Statement, to actual cash flow."

"We believe this is overwhelming evidence that IIPR is overpaying the properties to extend additional capital to the tenant, meanwhile tenant brings additional income to the company through inflated rental income."

"We have shown in this report that IIPR's assets are risky and overpriced, and we do not believe that the current spread between the company's cost of capital and the yield on the underlying assets is sustainable."

"As we demonstrate, YT appears to have lied about not owning any direct or indirect ownership of Blitz, because some of the shares in Blitz were used to pay off YT's debt to a large creditor during the bankruptcy."

"Review data for subscribed businesses on Trustpilot follow in many cases an _I shape, meaning that over 80% of reviews are 5-stars and there is no meaningful pattern of reviews sorting below the 5-star threshold."

"Given PLSE's weak initial clinical data in thyroids, we predict a forthcoming commercial failure, inevitably leading to another PLSE stock crash like what happened in 2021 when its dermatology application failed."

"In 2023, B4Ukraine wrote to Accor's CEO Sébastien Bazin cautioning that by remaining in Russia, companies face a growing risk of criminal liability for complicity in international crimes. Bazin has never replied."

"The numerous complaints regarding GSX's teacher and employee recruitment indicate symptoms of bad business practices, the fact that its online teacher recruitment portal doesn't even work is even more concerning."

"Our analysis shows MCY's California subsidiary is deep underwater as we expect more than $2 billion in claims will blow the top off its $1.3 billion reinsurance tower and eat up its subsidiary's existing capital."

"Despite pulling back from recent highs, D-Wave's share price remains up over 600% since last October – a staggering rally that has occurred alongside largely unchanged consensus revenue estimates, as shown below."

"But therein lies to the key to the fraud – while Lasertec claims to have the highest profitability, its cash conversion is the lowest – a striking anomaly at the center of the largest corporate frauds in history."