Callouts & quotes from 182+ activist slides

"When I first looked at the financials around the IPO time, I could not get comfortable with the EBITDA they were reporting and all the adjustments. It was a maze. It was complex. It was obvious they were working hard to create a picture of a stable EBITDA stream. — Former Xylem Executive"

"The other large cap public midstream companies would all have an eye on Phillips 66’s midstream business if it were for sale. Given how underperforming the business has been, all the peers would know that $4 billion of EBITDA could easily be turned into $5 billion or more. — Michael Heim"

"we've always thought about kind of the long-term EBITDA margin in the mid 11s. — CEO Response (Nov 23, 2021); So as you said, kind of long-term average for EBITDA has been the middle average. — CEO Response (June 14, 2022); we think that's an opportunity. — CEO Response (May 22, 2024)"

"No, the acquirer cannot achieve all of the synergies in Year 1. That's because the post-transaction integration takes time to execute. The integration could take several years. As a result, it is uncommon for the acquirer to achieve 100% of synergies in the first year. — 10X EBITDA"

"Although the resulting leverage exceeds the level appropriate for a ‘BBB-’ rating on an ongoing basis, the ratings incorporate S&P's expectations that Cox has the capacity and commitment to reduce consolidated debt to EBITDA within two years to the low-to-mid 4x area. — S&P"

""I'd like to finish our call this morning with our expectations for the remainder of 2019. We're tightening our guidance range for the full year with revenue between $69 million and $71 million and adjusted EBITDA between $2 million and $4 million." — Q3 2019 Conf Call"

""Eurofins commissions statutory audits covering nearly 100% of its external sales, EBITDA and total assets, even when this is not required by local regulation. These are performed mostly by Tier 1 and Tier 2 audit firms" — Eurofins Scientific Press Release 6-25-24."

"And secondly, looks like MidOcean is selling this about four years to the day almost from when they bought it, do you guys know what they paid for it and what the EBITDA looked like at that point? — Analyst Altobello; No, we wouldn't comment on that — CEO Farrell"

"“If you mean by “gain on sale” the gain from real estate promotion (i.e. the selling of walls/sites + rights to build attached and one day the option to buy back the walls of the shrunken stores) yes it is included in the EBIT/EBITDA” — Casino Investor Relations"

"The main thing that confuses me is when companies on the front pages of their annual report always show any adjusted earnings or EBITDA and do not show what really interests me as a shareholder, namely EBIT and what is there after taxes. — Anonymous Shareholder"

""If [HMA] does not meet or exceed the Quality Requirement, the [Compensation] Committee will exercise its discretion to reduce the portion of the Adjusted EBITDA-Modified Performance Components that is eligible to vest and be paid by up to 20%." — HMA Form 10-Q"

"HGV is trading at a material discount to its closest peer, Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corp. (NYSE: VAC) ("VAC"), based on 2022 EBITDA, whereas HGV historically traded at a comparable multiple to VAC. — HGV's Response to 4.20.21 Land & Buildings statement"

""And we already pointed out that in the last quarter we have a path to achieve our 2016 targets. We actually said that we're going to have an EBITDA target of $350 million 2016 on revenues of $1.6 billion...." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, October 8, 2015"

"S&P recently published estimates that also come in significantly below MPLN’s 2021 guidance, and yet management has not withdrawn this guidance. The rating agency’s release dated October 20, 2020 shows a much dimmer view of MPLN’s sales and EBITDA."

"We made some modest adjustments to our EBITDA margin outlook at the midyear point raising Imagery a bit higher and putting Space Systems segment a bit lower due to continue Geo concept market weakness and program performance. — CEO Howard L. Lance"

"“Again, we've captured about $400 million of EBITDA synergies over the last three or four years since closing the Bayer transaction. And we'll have that kind of now done into the 2024 run rate.” — CFO Todd Young, Q3 2023 Earnings Call 11/7/2023"

"ESG and Climate segment Adjusted EBITDA expenses increased 23.1% for the three months ended September 30, 2022... partially offset by increased capitalization of expenses related to internally developed software projects. — MSCI SEC filings"

"EBITDA add-backs. Very aggressive; includes uncapped pro forma cost savings, synergies and operating expense reductions resulting from transactions and expected to be taken within 18 months, determined in good faith by Parent. — Moody's"

"Analyst, JP Morgan: “A couple of things here. First, what was the internal EBITDA target for Q1, that you embedded in the original 2013 guidance?” CFO, HMA: “A different number than yours. (LAUGHTER)” — Transcript of HMA earnings call"

"The fact that the Company would refer to this deal as being done at 9x EBITDA demonstrates management and the Board’s fundamental lack of understanding of the assets they sold and a predilection for misleading shareholders."

"And if we were a business today that we're separated from our TiO2, we would be going into 2016 saying...2016 will be a record EBITDA margin year in the history of this company. — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, March 2016"

"It is our intention within the 24-month period to be able to take this combined business, this pigments business... and have a normalized EBITDA in excess of $0.5 billion — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, September 2013"

"We continue to target a long-term leverage of approximately 2.25 times net debt to adjusted EBITDA. From time to time, we may deviate from our long-term leverage target to pursue strategic opportunities. — Capital Mgmt."

"HGV is effectively betting that $125 million in synergies will be achieved without strong support or track record, in our view, while management badly missed their 2018 investor day EBITDA forecasts. — Land & Buildings"

""What this tells us is that BWLD could improve its valuation if operations were adapted to run like efficient franchise units – potentially increasing dollar EBITDA double-digits" — Jim Sanderson, Arthur Wood, 3/28/17"

"Credit ratings depend on a number of qualitative and quantitative factors; however, in general Moody’s recommends retailers stay below 3.5x Adjusted Debt / EBITDAR to achieve an investment grade rating. — Moody's"

"Our capacity to improve our margin profile provides us with the confidence to achieve the strategic planned target to increase adjusted EBITDA margin annually by 30 to 50 basis points. — CFO Michaud Q3'23"

"In 2016, adjusted EBITDA included a contract loss provision of US$7.5 million resulting from a change in the estimate of development and engineering costs to complete a firm fixed price program — Maxar"

"The business, as we scale it out, should move into EBITDA positive as we get into the end of the year and, again, move into the positive for the full year in 2015. — J.P. Morgan Conference 5/20/2014"

"In addition to strong organic growth, we have completed over 100 acquisitions since 2007, generally at an average adjusted EBITDA multiple of 7.0x, excluding platform acquisitions — GFL Prospectus"

"Fiscal 2017 performance targets consisted of adjusted EBITDAP, Corporate operating cash flow, Aerojet Rocketdyne bookings, and certain other individual goals and had a 12-month performance period."

"James Taiclet: "The sites we acquired in Brazil are high performing towers and the multiple pay was in the range of 12x to 13x adjusted EBITDA." — James Taiclet, CEO, American Tower Corp."

"The total consideration for NV5 is approximately $1.7 billion, representing approximately 10.3x 2025E consensus adjusted EBITDA. — Acuren Corporation and NV5 Global, Inc. Press Release"

"Key pillars to accelerate organic growth with high single-digit Adjusted EBITDA CAGR target to reach $2.125 billion by the end of fiscal 2025 — Saputo Presents Its New Strategic Plan"

""believes that Adjusted EBITDA provides a simple and understandable measure of our recurring profitability and it is highly correlated to our stock price performance" — HMA Proxy"

">70% of '25 EBITDA comes from more defensive midstream, chemicals, and marketing segments – all premium multiple businesses vs refining. — Bank of America, October 17, 2024"

">70% of '25 EBITDA comes from more defensive midstream, chemicals, and marketing segments – all premium multiple businesses vs refining. — Bank of America, October 17, 2024"

">70% of '25 EBITDA comes from more defensive midstream, chemicals, and marketing segments – all premium multiple businesses vs refining. — Bank of America, October 17, 2024"

"“challenging to provide an accurate forecast for Solvay’s earnings and EBITDA in 2028 due to the inherent uncertainties and unpredictability of future events.” — ChatGPT"

""Jim's gotta go," was a common refrain and "that would be worth a few EBITDA multiple turns in valuation" often followed. — Market participants at G2E gaming conference"

"Muddy Waters describes the EBITDA margin as unusually high. You have told us 20% in 2014 and 24.8% in 2015. How is it that the margin is so high? — Dr. Weimann"

"The 22x '23E EBITDA valuation ascribed to Evoqua and 25% share dilution was described as "crazy expensive" and "surprising" by a former high-level executive."

"The 22x '23E EBITDA valuation ascribed to Evoqua and 25% share dilution was described as "crazy expensive" and "surprising" by a former high-level executive."

"“EBITDA levels are at a low point and [the Company expects] to see improvements with revenue growth in 2015...” — Yahoo! Management, Q3 2014 earnings call."

"We rate NOVA Overweight. At ~20 times CY21E EV/EBITDA, we think the multiple is attractive, set against an earnings growth rate of about 40%. — J.P. Morgan"

"We are not going to run for EBITDA per ton, we're going to run for total EBITDA out of this business. — Roy Harvey, CEO, Alcoa Corp., February 28, 2017"

"We evaluated the Entity's ability to accurately forecast EBITDA by comparing actual results to historical EBITDA forecasts — KPMG (2022 Annual Report)"

""when it was publicly traded back in the early part of the decade at ~6x NTM EV/EBITDA it was not viewed as the highest quality asset." — Jefferies"

"“AOL's actual total cash compensation is high as a percentage of EBITDA in relation to peers.” — A leading independent compensation consulting firm"

"“...And actually, the -- both the growth and the EBITDA profile for SchoolMessenger is actually very similar to PowerSchool.” — 2Q23 Earnings Call"

"“Did BP just implicitly downgrade its 2025 targets? We think BP may be preparing to formally drop its 2025 EBITDA target.” — HSBC Global Research"

"Our one-year price target of $68 is based on a blended rate of 29.9x EV/EBITDA multiple of our FY20 EBITDA estimate of $123mn. — Imperial Capital"

"At the 2018 Investor Day, Huntsman committed to 10% organic Adjusted EBITDA growth with “no additional M&A” through 2020. — Huntsman Corporation"

"We estimate fair value using an equally weighted combination of discounted cash flows and multiples of revenue and EBITDA. — 2014 Annual Report"

"Garcia stated the company could cover interest expense assuming “long-term EBITDA targets even at today’s units.” — Carvana 3Q22 earnings call"

"Overstated Margins from Day One. CoreWeave assumes EBITDA margins hit 80% immediately, a figure a former CoreWeave engineer called “utopian.”"

"According to Green Street, EBITDAR / rent coverage of 2.25x to 2.50x is often deemed adequate by net lease investors."

"According to Green Street, EBITDAR / rent coverage of 2.25x to 2.50x is often deemed adequate by net lease investors."

"Yes, EV/EBITDA can be lower than EV/EBIT. In fact, EV/EBITDA is always lower than EV/EBIT. — 10X EBITDA"

"Moody’s suggests an upper bound of 3.5x debt/LTM EBITDA for the current rating level of Baa2."