Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"Limbach claims to trace its origins back to 1901 to a one-person sheet metal roofing company. Limbach took its modern form when it became a public company in 2016 through a SPAC merger with 1347 Capital Corp."

"The reality is that BUR is much more concentrated, and has really been dependent on just four cases (including bailed-out Napo) to generate 66% of its net realized gains over the prior seven and a half years."

"One transplant center after another emphasized that the vast majority of liver transplants in the US are within the same OPO region and within driving distance, given how the organ allocation algorithm works."

"High fixed interest rate payments risk incentivising Management to bid uneconomically for short-term cash flow at significant long-term risk to shareholders, especially since Management owns very little stock"

"Twenty-two percent of Bain LBOs from 1984 to 1992 went bankrupt according to Eileen Applebaum in her book Private Equity at Work. Recent Bain-led retail busts include Toys “R” Us, Guitar Center, and Gymboree."

"I predict that I can achieve similar plasma levels and clinical efficacy with both an oral formulation and at low cost, even if it requires off-label prescribing. I'm totally in. That is an easy win for me..."

"The occurrence of 13 deaths during trials, in the pre-approval period - 12 in the foreign trials and one in the US EAP program - was a canary in the coal mine that predicted the post-marketing safety debacle."

"Consistent with color we received from researchers at companies like J&J who played leadership roles in developing these compounds, the molecules are trivial to synthesize and extremely similar to each other."

"While Martin Franklin and other intelligent capital allocators have created tremendous value through platforms, there are many examples of acquisition-intensive companies that have destroyed shareholder value"

"It appears that someone has been buying large amounts of OTM call options on MOXC to create a gamma squeeze, in which the dealer selling the call options must buy the reference equity to hedge their position."

"County records show that IIPR purchased the property from 0 Jason Street LLC on 01/31/2020 for $2.9M. 0 Jason Street LLC previously purchased the property from GM Ohio Holdings LLC for $200,000 on 04/02/2019."

"In our estimation, GSHD's prospects for long-term growth will be seriously hamstrung by a negative reputation earned by churning through the life's savings and homes of people who never were going to succeed."

"Technology & Development expense growth (including stock-based compensation) has outpaced revenue growth over the last five years, as expenses have grown at a 16% CAGR, while revenue has grown at an 11% rate."

"Why is Lester Fernandes, former CFO of Nuvei who departed in 2018, still being listed as a Secretary, Treasurer and Director of GlobalOnePay according to a 2020 Texas Franchise Tax Public Information Report?"

"We believe Genius Sports, an overhyped revenue growth story assumed to benefit from the broader sports betting market, is facing competitive pressure and is unlikely to achieve its stated 25%+ growth targets"

"Campbell Soup Co. has been one of the worst performing food companies over the past two years. If a quick way out is available, the family members who control the firm should give it serious consideration..."

"Spruce Point observes that Philip Services Corp. also understated its Capex through the cash flow statement after completing its IPO in the U.S. and Canada. The stock eventually collapsed towards insolvency."

"This report is dedicated in the memory of Matt Farrell (1969-2022). Matt was Spruce Point's most dedicated and loyal Twitter follower. Matt was a true polymath and ardent supporter of short selling activism."

"Shown at right are illustrative estimates for deployment of 700MHz A and AWS-3 spectrum – these two examples alone generate over $1.10 of incremental AFFO per share for CCI (realized over a multiyear period)"

"We reiterate our reply that these questions refer to events in which the company did not participate. Disclosure duties under the Securities Trading Act do not bind the company, but its shareholders instead."

"Not only are analysts overestimating Penumbra's future blended market share across neurovascular aspiration thrombectomy types, but they are failing to account for the sub-segment dynamics within aspiration."

"If we let the incumbent Board members and management team continue in their ways, we believe Olive Garden may become the next Red Lobster...an iconic American brand destroyed by Darden’s Board and management"

"Darden management has suggested that $60 million (a paltry 1% of the total cost pool) in savings can be achieved, but we believe this is an order of magnitude lower than what is really needed AND achievable."

"Darden's massive scale, high AUV, and 100% company-operated store base should make Darden the leader in all revenue per employee categories – we believe the only reason it is not is poor corporate discipline"

"The fair value of the Company-owned retail stores nearly equates to Goodyear’s market cap and monetizing the stores at a ~13x EBITDA multiple (public peer average) would drive $4+ per share of value creation"

"Cutting hydrocarbon production (without a credible green-alternative to be available in an equivalent size) jeopardizes the development of sub-Saharan economies, which depend on it for 90% of its energy use."

"These conversations led our investigators to conclude that DZTD Wealth and DZSQ are taking investors' money and sticking them in products that are loans to individuals and SMEs – in other words, P2P lending."

"Harvey's unparalleled executive, advisory and public board experience restructuring, refocusing and turning-around struggling enterprises will allow him to provide unprecedented perspective to the Hess Board"

"We believe this study was used by Ambry Genetics to confirm and justify why they started doing DNA and RNA testing at the same time (concurrent testing) for people being evaluated for hereditary cancer risk."

"We believe Huntsman asked Ms. Lin to join the Board during settlement discussions with Starboard earlier this year because of her vast operating experience and knowledge of specialty chemicals and materials."

"If we let the incumbent Board members and management team continue in their ways, we believe Olive Garden may become the next Red Lobster...an iconic American brand destroyed by Darden’s Board and management"

"Darden management has suggested that $60 million (a paltry 1% of the total cost pool) in savings can be achieved, but we believe this is an order of magnitude lower than what is really needed AND achievable."

"Spruce Point believes that Xylem's acquisition of Evoqua is an implicit acknowledgement of failure towards its long-term goals for 2025 which it previously outlined at its Investor Day on September 30, 2021."

"Unlike many businesses where investment spending works toward building a durable asset, a franchise value, and a recurring revenue stream, here the Capex goes toward reducing the assets one barrel at a time."

"Over the past five years, the Company has experienced material turnover among its executive leadership team, leading to instability and a lack of operational consistency, as the following graphic highlights."

"Looking carefully at AMR's equity account statement and stock repurchase footnotes, we see it repurchased $23.84m of stock in Q1 2022. Furthermore, it recorded $3.03m of inflows from warrants being exercised"

"We expect the first generation of these devices to hit EP labs within the next 3-4 years, dealing the final blow to any rationale for broad adoption of hybrid/minimally-invasive surgical ablation approaches."

"The single-procedure efficacy of a catheter ablation aided only by real-time mapping matches the double-procedure efficacy of Convergent, and the double-procedure efficacy using AcQMap is a vast improvement."

"Warning: If Oatly expects to make new product introductions into adjacent markets, we believe it won't be easy. For example, all key competitors are already marketing oat creamers at supermarkets and online."

"Spruce Point believes that, given the nature of Dropbox's contracts, customer base, and lack of developed technology, commission costs represent customer acquisition costs which should be recognized upfront."

"Spruce Point believes it is unlikely that Dropbox is a takeover target for a strategic buyer, and that it is not yet cheap enough, and would be an unusually large deal, for technology-focused private equity."

"Spruce Point is alarmed that the Chief Accounting Officer has been described by the Company as not afraid to operate in gray areas and can “tailor” accounting practices vs. re-engineering business processes."

"Unfortunately for Twist, oligos and their by-products are a pure commodity, as synthetic DNA is just a specialty industrial chemical, priced by length like nylon rope at Home Depot, at pennies per base pair."

"3-15 is important for investors to understand NQ's management. First, they obviously lack an ethical compass - that is the obvious. More subtly though, this is evidence that they just cannot help themselves."

"FND stopped providing enhanced disclosure of where the capex was spent after 2021. Even more concerning, the capex omission came after the CFO claimed that new store unit economics were the best ever opened."

"FND's inventory accounting is called "moving weighted average cost method" and appears to be some hybrid of the method used by Lumber Liquidators and Tile Shop, which are both embattled and struggling peers."

"Also Deloitte's final note at Dairy Crest (U.K.) warning about the greatest potential for fraud around revenue recognition and "topside journals" is a big departure from its prior Independent Auditor Report."

"Oklo uses “illustrative unit economics” to promote the anticipated low capital costs and cash returns... We believe there are several problems with Oklo’s unit economics which render them grossly misleading."

"Assuming State Street successfully executes Trian's action plan and a modest re-rating to 13.5x forward earnings, we arrive at an implied target value per share for State Street of approximately $99 in 2014."

"we are proposing that TI adopt a dynamic capacity-management strategy and introduce a free cash flow per share target of $9.00+ in 2026, representing a level that is ~40% above current investor expectations."

"The following considers in greater detail the financial, operational and strategic benefits that could accrue to each SeparateCo (AOL, Content, Publishing and TWC), if it were an independent, public company."

"Sell-side analysts justify their price targets through contortions of logic, such as assuming development success rates six times the industry norm – even for a company with PeptiDream's dismal track record."

"Our concerns about Axon's revenue quality and cloud story is further supported by the fact that its quarterly revenues in 2018 sum to $92.4m, which does not reconcile to its annual reported result of $90.3m."

"We foresee a full separation driving much higher value for shareholders over time than other alternatives, even assuming management executes its plan of high single digit EPS growth in the current structure."

"If Kornit received a multiple closer to printing and computer equipment peers, and our concerns about Amazon come to fruition, it's easy to justify a price target of $4.50 – $9.30 or 75% – 85% downside risk."

"MSCI's SEC Form ADV 2A references that it has just 84 employees but through its foreign affiliates “leveraged” 600 ESG employees including ~250 analysts and researchers. How are these costs allocated to ESG?"

"MTD has been audited since 1999 by PwC. In the U.S., it is very rare for an auditor to go to jail for malpractice. Even in some of the U.S.’s biggest frauds (Madoff, Enron, Worldcom) no auditor went to jail."

"Why in the late stages of business cycle is Mettler now acquiring its real estate in newly formed entities? Is it becoming more desperate to boost earnings by removing lease expense, and to capitalize costs?"

"Subsequent to the move, Dalian’s OP margin declined from 15.4% in FY 2009 to 10.6% in FY 2010, indicating that the Automotive portion of Dalian was much higher margin than the Small Precision Motors portion."

"If the following does not convince an investor that NQ’s YDT narrative is fabricated, then the investor is either too emotionally invested in the stock, or is gullible enough to still believe in Santa Claus."