Callouts & quotes from 36+ activist slides

"Spruce Point believes that the ongoing proliferation of third-party 3D printing labs in the clear aligner space will only incentivize further R&D directed at clear aligner development: whereas Align was, until recently, the only major player in the clear aligner space, materials producers now face a broad and rapidly-growing number of potential customers for clear aligner plastics."

"It's just been very frustrating watching them not just take... like look at Wise and look at Remitly. They both started at the same place. 50% of Wise customers use more than one product and the velocity with which they put out new features, and they're just evolving very rapidly. Whereas Remitly keeps incrementally changing the things that are working."

"In addition to paying out a higher percentage of Retail Sales than Avon, Herbalife's commission structure varies from Avon's in two critical ways: (i) Herbalife's royalties are "flat," whereas Avon's are "descending;" and (ii) Herbalife has a Production Bonus ("infinity bonus"), Avon only pays Recruiting Rewards three levels deep"

"What’s worth noting is that IIPR’s purchase was actually in the form of a quitclaim deed which typically only transfers the grantor’s interest in a piece of real estate, whereas 3G Management’s purchase was in the form of a warranty deed which guarantees the transfer of legal title and rights to the real estate."

"Spruce Point has evaluated some of the language used by management about its relative market share. Whereas in the past management talked about growing relative market share, the tone shifted in 2023 to things it was worried about and then to referencing “enhanced” relative market share vs. outright growth."

"There is more clear evidence of inaccurate restructuring accounts. We observe that Avery can no longer accurately account for restructuring charges among its segments. Whereas total restructuring charges, net of reversals, used to match segment restructuring charges in prior years, now they do not."

"Axon has magically boosted its TAM by increasing both user and price assumptions. The pricing assumption for its AI TAM cannot even be justified by its current pricing. Bundle assumptions show it gets $50/month, whereas Axon leads investors to believe that it should be valued at $100/month."

"Saputo has exhibited the largest increase in Days Inventory Outstanding (DIO) among its global set of dairy industry peers. Whereas its DIOs were below average, now they are above industry average. In fact, over the past 4 years, Saputo's DIO have increased by nearly 20 days."

"Notice how ABML issued a press release that announced a $4.5m DOE grant, whereas days later American Lithium issued the same press release but clarified their role along with another partner. We believe this illustrates how ABML tries to glorify its position in the industry."

"COVID-19 has accelerated the movement from physical to virtual store locations and ecommerce. Whereas LSPD started primarily with POS solutions for brick and mortar retail and hospitality, it has had to acquire its way into providing ecommerce solutions (SEOShop and Ecwid)."

"LSPD has a focus on SMBs but its DSOs at 15 are significantly lower than comparable sized peers at 70+ and actually improved during peak COVID-19 whereas peer DSOs worsened. How is this possible? On the next slide, we show that allowance for bad debts was even increasing."

"We calculate that 35-50% of Adjusted Operating Income (EBIT) has gone to IRBT’s executive management in the past two years, whereas it was only 15% in 2011. We view this as a warning sign of executive compensation becoming disconnected from operating performance."

"The financial strain from Generac's warranty accounts can also be seen from recent social media advertising on Facebook where Generac is offering a free 10 year extended warranty, whereas a year ago it was only 7 months.."

"Whereas the nameplate capacity of the facility exceeds the generator's grid connection, to account for degradation in panel efficiency over time (for modern panel 0.3-0.5% per year), "overplanting" should be neutral."

"Warning: Oatly's 2018 U.S. sales can't be reconciled and vary by 100%. Both Nielsen and a Swedish magazine reported $6m of sales in 2018, whereas Oatly just disclosed $12m of sales in its new investor presentation."

"Despite a significantly better customer experience, streaming video services like Netflix are priced at ~$15 per month or less whereas traditional Pay TV packages cost greater than $80 per month in the U.S."

"Whereas Stryker management has long preached about cost optimization, according to a former employee it is really a sales driven organization, and problems of too much inventory were present pre COVID-19."

"Since its IPO, it's evident that LSPD's business has become more competitive by analyzing hardware margins. Whereas before, it could make money on the POS systems, now they are sustaining losses."

"AMR’s portrayal of its “Non-GAAP Cost of Coal Sales” is highly liberal when compared with peers. We see observe it is making five beneficial adjustments, whereas most peers make two or three."

"BIO gives clear guidance that it only capitalizes costs up to implementation, whereas Mettler has not, and continues to aggressively capitalize costs into software within PP&E."

"Disney appears to have paid 26.5x 2018A EBITDA for Fox’s traditional media assets (excl. Hulu) whereas comparable media transactions were completed at 11.9x LTM EBITDA(1)"

"Whereas on the surface, WSP's 2023 operating cash flow growth was 21%, but adjusted for the interest expense misclassification, it was less spectacular at 7.4%."

"One prominent EP with whom we spoke likened 3D contact maps to a high-definition picture whereas the Acutus map was like “watching a video clip in 4K or 8K.”"

"The investigator indicated the generic liquid formulation is naturally more sensical – "everybody can take that, whereas not everybody can swallow a pill.""

"In addition, Herbalife's products are typically sold at a 50% discount to SRP, whereas many of its competitors sell their products at a 30–40% discount"

"This scenario of strong Peiyou offline growth results in 36.8% small-class ASP growth, whereas TAL disclosed that small-class ASPs declined by 9.9%."

"The bulls talk multiple expansion, whereas the bears talk hard data points showing that Avery has had no organic EBIT growth absent cost cutting."

"Between 2017-2019, AVY portrays Free Cash Flow as having grown by approximately $91m, whereas Spruce Point believes it has declined by $118m."

"Whereas Pioneer gets valued at $20 billion for its undrilled acreage, CONSOL's stock implies negative value for its undrilled acreage."

"Mergers are combinations of equals or near-equals. Whereas Acquisitions are more like the acquirers absorbing the targets."

"Interest in Dropbox, as measured by Google Trends, is declining whereas interest in its peers is stable and growing."

"Peabody correctly separates discontinued operations from continuing operations for investors whereas AMR does not."

"Discount stores primarily appeal to women bargain hunters whereas BOOT's core customer has skewed to 65% men."

"Peers have been successful at developing and commercializing GLP-1s whereas Pfizer has not."

"Peers have been successful at developing and commercializing GLP-1s whereas Pfizer has not."

"Dropbox is not a default option, whereas OneDrive or Google Drive are...."