Callouts & quotes from 262+ activist slides

""The issue for us has always been the relative return of a U.S. small cell opportunity versus our ability to deploy capital primarily on the macro side in international markets. And when we've looked at that historically, the international opportunities have tended to present a more attractive and more compelling return opportunity, and that's guided our capital deployment decisions." — Senior Director of Investor Relations, American Tower, May 2018"

""[W]e've gotten more and more comfortable that we build these and other carriers, so we get an anchor built, that is what we call the first carrier. We build it, we get about a 6% to 7% return on that capital for the first carrier, which is not over our cost of capital. But when we add a second tenant to that, which happens over the course of about 10 years in our business, our returns go to the 10% to 12% range." — CFO Dan Schlanger, June 2020"

""No, it's not. What you'll see used is a traditional specialty finance company investment model where you use core earnings. All specialty finance companies and really all banks use core earnings. Core earnings takes all interest income, subtracts interest expense, subtracts operating expenses and then divides that by equity and that is what the core return on equity and that's how these businesses really get valued." — Former Sunnova Executive"

""No, it's not. What you'll see used is a traditional specialty finance company investment model where you use core earnings. All specialty finance companies and really all banks use core earnings. Core earnings takes all interest income, subtracts interest expense, subtracts operating expenses and then divides that by equity and that is what the core return on equity and that's how these businesses really get valued." — Former Sunnova Executive"

""Because we do have a differentiated customer offering that customers love. Our NPS [Net Promoter Score] is high." — Ernie Garcia III, CEO Carvana, 1Q23 earnings conference call. "What were our differentiators early on, are no longer differentiators at all. Like, everyone will deliver a car to you now, everyone has a return policy...Everything that made Carvana what it was...CarMax? They've already caught up." — Unattributed expert source."

""So when our marketing team is thinking, hey, do we increase or decrease some of our, call it, paid search or digital channel investments, they're not looking at the average customer acquisition cost. They're looking at the marginal, meaning that next dollar spent, either higher or lower, and seeing what the return on is -- on that marketing dollar is. And so I think that's a big part of our secret sauce." — CEO GS Conf Sept '24"

""As we look to fiscal '19, we believe there is a unique opportunity to deliver value to our stakeholders beyond M&A by returning capital to shareholders through the announced $50 million share repurchase. We see this as an incremental way to add shareholder value without inhibiting our long-term ability to invest in brand building, delever and pursue future M&A opportunities." — Christine Sacco, CFO, Q4 2018 Call, May 10, 2018"

"“Therefore, in order to restore the balance between safety and soundness and mission, FHFA has placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship. That is a statutory process designed to stabilize a troubled institution with the objective of returning the entities to normal business operations. FHFA will act as the conservator to operate the Enterprises until they are stabilized.” — James Lockhart, FHFA Director, 9/7/2008"

"“Therefore, in order to restore the balance between safety and soundness and mission, FHFA has placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship. That is a statutory process designed to stabilize a troubled institution with the objective of returning the entities to normal business operations. FHFA will act as the conservator to operate the Enterprises until they are stabilized.” — James Lockhart, FHFA Director, 9/7/2008"

"“Therefore, in order to restore the balance between safety and soundness and mission, FHFA has placed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into conservatorship. That is a statutory process designed to stabilize a troubled institution with the objective of returning the entities to normal business operations. FHFA will act as the conservator to operate the Enterprises until they are stabilized.” — James Lockhart, FHFA Director, 9/7/2008"

"A full 87% of [Deutsche Bank conference] attendees believed that if the vote were to occur today, Dell’s existing bid would be voted down — Deutsche Bank Securities research October 21, 2018; In many ways, the IPO alternative seems suboptimal for both sides — Institutional Shareholder Services Inc., research note October 5, 2018; The Biggest Winner of Dell's Public-Market Return? Michael Dell — Bloomberg Deals, July 2, 2018"

"“...We’re committed to four quarters of brand support. The fourth quarter we increased meaningfully our media investment versus previous year and we’re going to continue that in FY17” — Q4 '16 Earnings Call; “We’ve stepped up digital [advertising]. Why? Because it’s working, and we’re getting the returns, and we can see the returns both in volume and in sales and importantly, in terms of profit.” — August 2017 (Clorox)"

"there will be a resumption of its order flow and shipments to Amazon — Stifel Research. Recent sales growth has been broad-based, but still supported by the return of meaningful Amazon sales. While these appear stable for the next few quarters, an unexpected slowdown here may represent the biggest downside risk going into next year should offsetting contribution from new platforms not materialize. — Barclays Research"

""We believe the new BDC (ACAP) will have inferior returns relative to peers because it has lower asset yields and a higher cost structure. As a result we believe this investment will continue to trade at a deep discount to its book value" — KBW Research Note, November 9, 2015; "We apply an 80% book value multiple to the net assets of American Capital Income" — Cantor Fitzgerald Research Note, November 9, 2015"

"“We never understood why this lower growth, lower return (and lower multiple) business with undeniable long-term structural risks would enhance Disney’s asset mix or contribute to Disney’s DTC transformation. By allowing Comcast to prevail in the Sky bidding war, Disney avoided paying a massive premium for a business which is primarily a European DBS distributor” — Todd Juenger, Bernstein, September 24, 2018"

"Red Lobster's business continued to decline through fiscal year end, and based on industry trends, the declines were expected to continue for an extended time — Darden Press Release. The management team believes that each of these issues are temporary in nature, correctable, and that they have plans in place to return the business to historic levels of profitability — Red Lobster Debt Memorandum."

"Red Lobster's business continued to decline through fiscal year end, and based on industry trends, the declines were expected to continue for an extended time — Darden Press Release. The management team believes that each of these issues are temporary in nature, correctable, and that they have plans in place to return the business to historic levels of profitability — Red Lobster Debt Memorandum."

"In the summer of 2013, Huang was charged with ‘criminal defamation’ for criticizing a Chinese company. His trial in September of that year lasted one day and was closed to the public, at Silvercorp’s behest. Silvercorp was also granted standing. In the end, Huang received a two-year sentence and was returned to the same overcrowded cell to serve out the rest of his term. — Hindenburg Research"

"“... I have not gotten a single sale from someone who has seen my ad on Patch, so I can’t say I’m very happy with the prices I’ve had to pay to advertise....” — Local advertiser on Patch, March 2012; “... It has been two months and I haven’t gotten any results from Patch. If I do not see any return in the next month, I’m going to stop using Patch.” — Local advertiser on Patch, March 2012"

"NEW YORK -- The leader of a secretive group in upstate New York turned female followers into brainwashed "slaves" who were branded with his initials and coerced into having sex, authorities alleged on Monday in a criminal complaint charging him with sex-trafficking. Keith Raniere, co-founder of the group called Nxivm, was arrested in Mexico and returned to Texas Monday, authorities said."

"I have been a surgical nurse for 40 years and have seen many patients receive SCS...and many, many fail, or return to surgery for fractured electrode wires, misplaced wires, or infected battery pockets...spinal fluid leaks...severe headaches...[they] find out in 2-8 months that they wish they never had agreed to it ... — Anonymous (comment on a blog discussing the WSJ article)"

"Our technical designer checked some of the returned pants and figured out that 12,000 pairs had been constructed with a women's front sewn to a men's back. That was when we realized we needed a quality-control team on the sewing side at all of our factories. We ended up donating the whole lot of pants--that was more than $100,000 in inventory. — Hasson in 2018 Inc. Interview"

""We continue to see a commitment to shareholder returns as being a strong differentiator in our E&P investor offering. Since 2007, we have returned, or have committed to return more than US$5.5bn from monetisation of exploration and production successes through a combination of special dividends, tender offers and share repurchase programmes." — Capricorn 2021 Annual Report"

"TL;DR Pay your local dealership to do a PPI (pre-purchase inspection) during your return policy. It's worth it. /u/DougDeMuro would not be impressed with the bumper to bumper CarvanaCare warranty. They will tell you that it is the same as the manufacturer's warranty, but it is significantly worse. At least the return policy is good. I needed to use mine. — Reddit User"

""lightly regulated, private investment funds that use unconventional investment strategies and tax shelters in an attempt to make extraordinary returns in any market...these factors have given them a secretive and shady aura in the financial community." — Investopedia; "The Sleaziest Show on Earth." — Forbes; "the largest fraud in SBA history." — SBA inspector general"

""In closing, I wanted to emphasize that our business model and philosophy regardless of short-term volatility, we'll remain laser-focused on operational excellence, capital discipline, long-term shareholder value creation, and returning that value to shareholders while fortifying our balance sheet by continuing debt reduction." — Former CEO Mark Little, July 29, 2021"

""There has been an internal debate within the IRS for a number of years about whether the agency should issue separate guidelines for solar transactions... is the tax equity investor a real partner with meaningful upside and downside risk of a business or is it a bare purchaser of tax benefits or a lender earning essentially a fixed return?" — Norton Rose Fulbright"

""With this return to normalcy, residential consumption has fallen back to its 2019 level and commercial consumption has risen to its prepandemic level as well. And as a reminder, historically in the water business, we typically see a natural decline of about 1% annually in water usage as customers change out older appliances and fixtures." — Year End 2021 Conf Call"

"In closing, I wanted to emphasize that our business model and philosophy regardless of short-term volatility, we'll remain laser-focused on operational excellence, capital discipline, long-term shareholder value creation, and returning that value to shareholders while fortifying our balance sheet by continuing debt reduction. — Former CEO Mark Little, July 29, 2021"

"One important area in which fiscal '19 will differ from fiscal '18 is in capital allocation. With $600 million of acquisition debt repaid and our leverage target achieved, we returned to our historical priorities for deployment of cash, which our CapEx, acquisitions, dividend payments and share repurchases. — Cintas CFO Q4 2018 Earnings Call July 19, 2018"

""We're [Anadarko] very committed to capital discipline and...as we constrain capital, we see better returns on our projects, we quit dipping down to the lower tier, we keep that continual high grading effort going on and on... We're going to be very disciplined as we go forward." — Karl Kurz, Shareholder Nominee, Former COO Anadarko, May 2008"

"These (tax) rates (from 2020) reflect onetime operational fluctuations that arose due to the pandemic... For 2021, we do not anticipate these circumstances arising as we expect to return to normalized operations during the year. And we expect our full year effective tax rate to be in the range of 15.5% to 16.5% — CFO Boehnlein (Jan 2021)."

""The complaint is for damages as a result of an alleged fraud and stock manipulation. The Company is seeking monetary damages in excess of $200,000,000." — Dwight Cantrell, CFO of Endovasc. "Di Ricco is a disbarred attorney with criminal convictions for aiding and abetting the preparation of false tax returns and obstruction of justice.""

"I’d figured I’d start my presentation off with a little math formula… And it’s basically the formula for how AOL returns to overall growth. And basically that happens… when the absolute dollar growth from all the growth businesses… exceeds the decline of the subscription and search operations. — CFO Arthur Minson, Investor Day, 6/16/11"

""We have implemented a zero-based budgeting process by brand with a sophisticated ROI analysis looking at every single piece of our marketing mix to ensure we are spending money only where we are getting the best returns." — Tony Hooper, EVP of Global Commercial Operations at Amgen, Amgen 2014 Business Review Meeting, October 28, 2014"

""For the long term, we expect the company to grow sales at 7% and earnings at 12% compounded annually. These performance goals reflect the diversity of our portfolio, attractive returns on growth investments, such as research and development and capital expenditures, plus benefits from ongoing productivity." — DuPont's CEO (12/13/11)"

"You then said you had an investigation conducted by Ernst & Young (EY). This is the same company that prepared the annual financial statements. What did you expect? That they would come forward and say, Oops, sorry, we've made a mistake, we're returning our auditor's licence to practice? This is laughable. — Shareholder at 2016 AGM"

"We will also be very focused on achieving a better return on invested capital for our retail businesses, in effect, getting more from our existing assets. And we will refocus on our automotive business. This Company had its beginnings in that business, our two founders selling tires and servicing cars. — 2009 Annual Report (page 3)"

""It will be acceptable to indicate eventual possible appreciation in the event of confidence returning to such a degree as to produce unduly rapid monetary expansion, but such an indication must carry complete conviction that the rate would only ever be adjusted in that direction." — Internal Hong Kong government policy memo, 1983"

"So, is Ballroom doing well or not doing well? When I hear or learn that a claim is being filed in the German courts for the return of the purchase price you paid because Ballroom is not doing well, and yet you write under no. 11 of the response that Ballroom is doing well, then we are going to lose the claim. — Shareholder at AGM"

""Agrium's Board has, in our view, done little to ensure that shareowners in the company have the information they need to make informed decisions" — Credit Agricole / CLSA, 11/5/12; "Agrium's EBITDA targets can be met with acquisitions at any price at all, with no reference to return on capital" — Credit Agricole / CLSA, 11/5/12"

""After unification, 100% of your dividends have to be franked for shareholders to benefit. So, when you think of our shareholder returns policy... paying out at 60% over the last 8 years, that means 60% of our earnings have to be in Australia to have the capacity to keep on fully franking." — Peter Cunningham, CFO, 31 July 2024"

"In 2023, Parkland was a top performer on the Toronto Stock Exchange, achieving a total shareholder return of approximately 50 percent — Parkland Press Release. The outstanding share performance of Parkland in 2023 is a clear expression of our shareholders' support of Parkland's direction and strategy — Parkland Press Release."

"In addition, these loans are priced at market rates, which not only helps to diversify our balance sheet, but also provides an additional return above our cost of funding and a yield similar to the net interest margin of our loans, which are unsecured. — CFO Lapointe, SOFI Technologies, Inc., Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript"

""They did that for a reason, because the Joint Value I discussed. They were worried people would go, 'wait a minute, now your just placing the robots, in return for cases.' So you're wiping out the million dollar price tag and your getting cases off it. It's a way to fool the numbers a little bit." — Former Mako Salesperson"

"If Val-gan can grow organically at a high single-digit rate as Valeant management projects, and management can invest the company’s free cash flow in new acquisition targets at historical rates of return, then we believe management can achieve its goal of 15%-20% annual EPS growth — Valeant Presentation April 22, 2014"

"DiRicco, who prepared SOC's 2012 corporate income tax returns, was convicted in 1989 for conspiring to defraud the United States, aiding and abetting in the preparation of false tax returns, and obstruction of justice; and, in 2000, for interference with administration of internal revenue laws — Legal filing excerpt."

"Liu Yishuo explained that YY is a platform which requires money to play, he himself also returned just to 'scam money.' But he called out to those whose daily work involves brushing (sending fake) gifts, telling them if you are making less than 5,000 RMB a month, sending yourself gifts is not worth it. — Liu Yishou"

""Some of the costs of these promotions with celebrities are massive. And you know, any investor looking at would probably say, hey, we're not seeing the return here. And I think it's pretty justified to say that. I mean, the costs are pretty outrageous." — Spruce Point Interview With Former HIMS Executive"

"The best analogy to explain this, as one EP explained to us, is that the most advanced contact mapping system can only return an HD-quality panorama photo composed of images that were separately photographed over a long enough period of time that the disjointedness is noticeable when closely observed."

"“I guess, so just the mine grades, we expect and it was part of the budget, we expect the mine grades to stay at around those levels for about another six weeks from now. And then we’ll return those to the Life of Mine plan, which is roughly 2 grams a ton.” — Peter Breese, AKG Q1 2017 conference call."

"“Our approach to investing in franchise acquisitions is strategic and opportunistic...We have a rigorous, diligent review process. Only when the return metrics are attractive and we see long-term value creation opportunities do we consider a purchase” — Sally Smith, Chief Executive Officer, 8/16/16"

""You will recall that length of stay is among the most important return on investment considerations for hospital administrators as it represents an opportunity to reduce non-reimbursed costs, while also freeing up beds more quickly for the next reimbursed patients." — Mehren (Q119 earnings call)"

"“...I asked to cancel my subscription. 3 months later, they sent more medication and charged my credit card. They did not send me any kind of notice prior to shipping more medication. I did not authorize them to charge my credit card for $137 and they do not accept returns.” — David N, 4/22/23"

"In short, we expect to return in cash about 59% of [the August 5, 2019] market capitalization to our shareholders while at the same time keeping an ownership in a predictable business that generates over 80% of today’s operating income. — NLOK CEO Vincent Pilette, Q1 FY2020 Earnings Call"

"“Our ability to adapt, evolve, and grow has generated a total return of 9,000% for our shareholders since our IPO in 1999. That is well in excess of the S&P 500 return of 490% and representative of a business model serving all our stakeholders” — CEO Larry Fink, 2024 Letter to investors"

""Our ability to adapt, evolve, and grow has generated a total return of 9,000% for our shareholders since our IPO in 1999. That is well in excess of the S&P 500 return of 490% and representative of a business model serving all our stakeholders" — CEO Larry Fink, 2024 Letter to investors"

"The two separate agreements are designed to meet the risk, return, and regulatory preferences of our partners. Loans sold under the MPSA tend to have higher credit scores and lower losses than loans sold under the MTA. — Carvana 101 - Explainer on Recent Refinancing Transactions"

""Early data has exceeded our expectations, with the advertisers in the pilot seeing substantial returns, often surpassing those from other media channels and, in many cases, experiencing nearly 100% incrementality from our traffic." — APP CEO Adam Foroughi, Q3 2024 earnings call"

"We believe that this deal illustrates CTC's tremendous financial flexibility, and provides a capital cushion to evaluate additional growth verticals, support its investment-grade status, and potentially return additional capital to shareholders. — Brian Morrison, TD Securities"