Callouts & quotes from 26,677+ activist slides

"I believe that management should aim to reduce headcount to around 150,000, which is in line with Alphabet's headcount at the end of 2021. This would require a total headcount reduction in the order of 20%."

"We believe the stock is undervalued at <14x 2015 pro forma earnings. We see a path to ~$40-$45 of implied value per share by the end of 2017 and will seek to work with management to help realize this value."

"WD-40 has been touting its new product marketed to the recreational vehicle (RV) industry. Unfortunately, the RV market has grinded to a halt with numerous component and manufacturers suspending production."

"Management is never explicit about the contribution of acquisitions to sales growth, and frequently suggests that no growth is attributable to acquisitions even in periods in which it conducts material M&A."

"What Spruce Point finds amazing is that Saputo has been able to improve margins after the 2018 step down, without sacrificing any labor or rationalizing excess capacity (which it has now ceased disclosing)."

"Monster recently started referencing "production inefficiencies" as impacting gross margins. Could the inefficiencies be so bad that Monster has to ship products over 5,000 miles from Ireland to California?"

"As a standalone entity, SSgA could be better positioned to close the margin gap versus peers, receive a multiple re-rating over time, and may have significant strategic value to other industry participants."

"The logic for the creation of four independent companies is based on the business strategy, operating capabilities, degree of collaboration with the other business units, financial performance and strength."

"Given its 2019 disclosure of 12,000 new employees, we estimate 7,400 employees departed. Therefore, we estimate employee attrition at 46.0% or significantly higher than the 26.6% figure cited by management."

"This [soccer] sponsorship supports retailing with sampling and activation opportunities for our distributors and it will help in recruiting a key target segment of the U.S. population, the stay-at-home mom."

"Fighting for shelf space in an intensely competitive market, we find CHD’s products do not generally command the best locations, and are often placed side-by-side generic house brands or at the bottom rack."

"Considering shareholders' concerns regarding the proposed transaction, including whether a thorough review process was undertaken, we immediately call on the Board to put the spin-off to a shareholder vote."

"Specifically, we encourage targeting SG&A to 70% to 75% of gross profit, with a strong preference for the achievement of 75% as soon as possible and approaching 70% as expeditiously as practical thereafter."

"Phillips 66 is far from achieving its 2025 mid-cycle EBITDA target, with analysts' 2026 estimates signaling a major shortfall – despite consensus forecasts assuming a reasonable mid-cycle price environment."

"MSCI's regulatory filings for MSCI ESG Research LLC tells a different story about its business. We see that between March 2022 – March 2023 the number of issuers with ratings declined from 17,500 to 16,500."

"We believe MSCI should provide this information since unbilled revenue is frequently manipulated by other public companies and can provide insights into potentially aggressive revenue recognition practices."

"Intuit claims Credit Karma has 136 million members in the US, Canada, and the UK, but most of those are in the US, meaning Credit Karma may already have up to 60% or more of the adult population as members."

"Wells Fargo presents a non-GAAP operating income figure that has already added back SBC and amortization expense. They then add back over $600 million of amortization expense a second time to derive EBITDA."

"PERI is clearly emphasizing greater risks to its search business. In fact, it even specifically reordered and made risks to its search business the #1 most prominent risk upfront in the recently filed 20-F."

"Given this history and social/political backdrop, deposits in Potosi arguably need to be "world-class" to make it worthwhile for foreign mining companies and their investors to try to develop such deposits."

"We believe that BLI has now begun to stuff the channel to mask a sales decline, given a sudden, unexplained shift to distributor-based revenue over the last 2 quarters, from almost nothing to half of sales."

"Stryker's executives should have been aware of a significant rise in FDA complaints about K2M spine devices while issuing rosy outlooks for the business. Why didn't they disclose any operational challenges?"

"Five percent growth onto just FY2017 Q2's revenue of $271.1 million is $13.56 million (Rmb 90.3 million), which is already 27% higher than Shunshun's full year revenue reported to SAIC of Rmb 76.47 million."

"TFS claims that the issue of risk is mitigated through the assumption that the value of the plantations (which TFS can reclaim in the event of default) is allegedly greater than the cash value of the debts."

"Although DLO attempts to present this ability to engage in local-to-local payment processing as a competitive advantage, the marketplace for local payment processing is highly competitive, if not saturated."

"The distinction goes from arbitrary to outright suspicious when comparing numbers given in the Supplementary Appendix to the SONAR study to the numbers that appear in the FDA-reported adverse effects table."

"We believe PGNY uses its dubious outcomes data to craft a marketing message around its treatment plan that, while compelling, conflicts with the existing science and presents financial conflicts of interest"

"The limited commentary Weis provides investors suggests everything is great. The Board even declared 2017 a year of “financial and operational success” → Spruce Point’s forensic analysis suggests otherwise."

"Based on a review of other public company disclosures in the supermarket industry, it is apparent that Weis uses the most aggressive interpretation by allowing itself to include funds in transit up to week."

"Ginkgo copied their playbook; says he’s “been around the block enough times to understand” Ginkgo’s related-party games; and noted it’s the same model where money is “going from the left hand to the right.”"

"Ginkgo charged it $19MM for foundry services in 2019 - $1.1MM per employee - with an eye-popping deferred revenue balance of $62.5MM on its books as of Dec 31, 2019, which works out to $3.7MM per Motif FTE."

"Former employees and executives painted a consistent and damning profile of Ginkgo as a company with a long history of failure with little to nothing delivered in the way of successful strains and products."

"Phillips 66 underperformed the average of core peers Valero and Marathon by 8%, 32% and 97% over 1-year, 3-year and 5-year periods, respectively – no amount of statistical manipulation can change this fact."

"We observed that Epic Systems would be a big obstacle to athena’s success there, as it would be difficult for athena to develop a product that would displace Epic’s dominant software solution for hospitals."

"Heska DSOs related to Covetrus are both higher than for other customers/distributors and have deteriorated at a faster pace, but Heska has not provided any disclosure specifically related to Covetrus risks."

"While Starboard’s fee simple rental assumptions appear reasonable, attributing $75 million of rent to ground leases with less than 20 year terms (on a fully extended basis) is highly unrealistic in our view"

"Six days before the law change that greatly increased the penalty for non-disclosure of voting rights, on 20 November 2015, MV disposed of its shares in Ströer entirely and GTH disposed of its call options."

"Based on the SEC lawsuit, Armor Holdings engaged in improper accounting practices in body armor contracts by using “distributor net” accounting, after senior officers were put on notice by outside auditors."

"Spruce Point believes ShowingTime may help drive lead generation, but it comes with risks. Some consumers may use it as a "free showing". We have also heard some brokers may not use it over safety concerns."

"Stripping out these contributions implies essentially flat total company organic growth and just 2.4% organic growth in the ODR segment in 2025, assuming GCR continues to decline at a mid-single-digit pace."

"We are skeptical of Nova's latest ambitions and pivot towards antimony and critical minerals because its priorities have shifted multiple times and with controversial and disappointing outcomes in our view."

"We express concerns with the backgrounds and business relationships of management, the Board, and shareholders to individuals charged with market manipulation by the Australian regulator (ASIC) and the SEC."

"Nova’s ambitions to supply the U.S. with reliable antimony faces competing projects that also have government support, we believe are further progressed, and have blue chip financing and operating partners."

"Bob Evans trades at a multiple of EBITDA even lower than that of many restaurant companies, with strikingly little value consideration for its growing and highly-profitable BEF Foods packaged foods business"

"Despite repeatedly touting an emphasis on safety, Norfolk Sothern was adamantly opposed to a mandate proposed by the FRA to standardize two-man crews in an effort to enhance safety in the railroad industry."

"In addition to these unusual q/q inventory and pricing changes, 4Q22 total non-GAAP GPU was lowered by $483 due to a quirk in timing of loan sales, with a shift in receivables sales from year end into 1Q23."

"Jennifer Miller “backdrop of this whole diazoxide thing”; allegedly promoting questionable supplements for PWS; patients may be highly influenced and ask for requests “that are a little bit maybe out there”"

"The investigator stated the patient was at another trial site and was unable to confirm whether it was pulmonary edema, making us wonder if that was the more likely presentation given Vykat’s edema profile."

"If we roll out in more countries and regions through various sales channels, it is possible to aim for sales of 100 billion yen, but we will strive to be the Global Sharp Top without taking such an approach"

"~400 bps of improvement in MDLZ margins, bringing them in-line with diversified food peers (but well below snacks peers), would yield ~$1.4bn in incremental EBITDA (potentially worth ~$16bn to shareholders)"

"The biometrics review provides a chronology of how the FDA reviewer yet again gave Bioprojet a pass despite obvious red flags and accepted HARMONY 1 as a second trial in support of cataplexy along with CTP."

"We find it particularly interesting that, per his LinkedIn page, Stefaniak left just as PetIQ took its first formal steps towards going public. Was management hoping to sweep his past affairs under the rug?"

"Unlike traditional cow’s milk that is costly to make and requires pasteurization, oat milk can be made at home with two simple ingredients (oats and water) at a lower cost than purchasing product at retail."

"Allergan shares increased 94% (including dividends) from inception of our position in February 2014, and 89% from our average cost basis prior to the position being made public, to close of the transaction*"

"Moxian’s supposed main operating entity and its VIE in China both have 7 severe court sanctions against their common legal representative, Liu Shujuan, over Moxian’s failure to pay labor dispute judgements."

"By branding this hollow display as “kicking off the UAE Launch Edition program” and “delivering an aircraft,” Adam Goldstein and Archer cross into outright deceit, on par with Nikola’s infamous shenanigans."

"Discounting the projected enterprise value back one and one quarter periods at 25% and adjusting for the share count, we arrive at a fair value estimate for FCUV of $15 per share, well above current levels."

"These results point to obviously illegitimate reviews in large quantities. Leading global service providers don’t care much about their Trustpilot rating, they refuse to pay subscription fees to Trustpilot."

"In 2014, Fairmont Nile City became an alleged crime scene of a gang rape where six men dragged the victim, abducted her to the Fairmont room, gang raped her and tagged the victim’s body with their initials."

"At this point, the inventory balance is little more than a plug in an Excel spreadsheet to balance the accounts, spiraling out of control as is typical when an accounting fraud becomes difficult to sustain."