Callouts & quotes from 262+ activist slides

""Despite Juniper's strong fundamental performance this year that has driven the Street's EPS estimates higher versus a year ago, Juniper's stock (up 10% YTD) has underperformed relative to the S&P 500 Index (up 26%) in 2013. As such, we discussed the opportunity for an accelerated stock repurchase program with Juniper. ... We believe a $3 billion stock repurchase program could be 15-20% accretive to EPS" — Cantor Fitzgerald (12/11/13); "With respect to uses of cash, is there an argument for giving a committed level of cash return to shareholders out of free cash flow, given the healthy cash balance you have, given that it feels like cash flow, as a trend, should be rising going forward?" — Credit Suisse, CS Tech Conference (12/4/13); "Over the past three years, free cash flow generation at Juniper has averaged over $550 million per year. Further, the company has a relatively strong balance sheet with $2.8 billion of net cash at the end of the June quarter or 26% of the current market cap. ... we believe Juniper could and should institute a more formal capital return strategy" — Credit Suisse (9/18/13); "We believe there is scope for increased cash distribution" — Credit Suisse (9/18/13); "Healthy cash flow, no dividend. A quarterly dividend of $0.08/share would be very reasonable (potential yield 1.6%), but nothing's planned as yet" — RBC (8/12/13); "Juniper is a member of a club that most investors would like to see it resign from: Out of the 35 largest Hardware & Equip companies globally, JNPR is one of only four that is not expected to pay a dividend over the NTM. We believe it is time for JNPR to quit this club. ... we think a dividend would be viewed as a much-needed sign of mgmt's longer-term confidence. ... The knock-on positive effect of paying a dividend is bringing a whole new class of shareholders into the ownership base" — Citi (6/7/13); "We think it is time that Juniper quits the non-dividend payers and joins the overwhelming majority of global peers that directly return cash to shareholders" — Citi (6/7/13); "Risks to our Sell rating include a stronger carrier spending environment, improved competitive positioning, or a more aggressive capital allocation strategy, including the introduction of a dividend or a large buyback" — Goldman Sachs (4/24/13); "What would make us more positive? More aggressive capital allocation and/or activist shareholder involvement. Juniper's strong balance sheet ... and cash flow generation (estimated 7% FCF yield in CY13) make it a strong candidate for a significant buy-back or initiation of a dividend" — Goldman Sachs (3/19/13); "Juniper's share repurchases are typically used to offset stock option dilution resulting from the company's employee stock plans rather than being opportunistic buybacks based on price" — Goldman Sachs (6/13/12)"

""We believe the exit of CEO Kevin Johnson raises some concerns around execution, which has been largely uneven of late. That said, his eventual successor could be more opportunistic around costs and buybacks, while simplifying the product line. Time will tell" — Barclays (7/24/13); "Can we speak about the cost structure of Juniper and the scope for it to become more efficient? Because compared to many of the larger IT telecom equipment networking stocks, the operating expense to sales ratio ... [is] almost one of the highest of all the companies that we've looked at. ... Is it a case of direct cost-cutting?" — Credit Suisse, CS Tech Conference (12/4/13); "One of the frustrations I hear from investors is around OpEx and OpEx management. I think you have one of the highest percentages in terms of sales of R&D spend. We've seen other companies in the sector that have throttled back on OpEx, returning cash in an aggressive way, and they're being rewarded for that" — UBS, UBS Tech Conference (11/19/13); "Cost cutting should be focal. Juniper's operating margin structure has been under pressure for several years ... Over the same period revenue has grown at a CAGR of 3.3% per year which raises questions about management's ability to control operating expenses. On an absolute dollar basis, operating expenses have risen by over $300 million from $1.8 billion in 2010 to $2.1 billion in 2012 which, as a percentage of sales, is the highest within our coverage universe" — Credit Suisse (9/18/13); "The retirement of CEO Kevin Johnson, while not expected this quarter, could provide an opportunity for a new strategic approach given the difficulties the company has faced. At the very least, it gives the stock a chance to benefit from the restructuring and realignment story that usually occurs after a CEO transition" — Morgan Stanley (7/24/13); "We view the increased opex as disappointing as leverage was one of the main reasons investors were attracted to Juniper's stock" — Stifel Nicolaus (7/24/13); "We continue to believe the company's R&D level is far too high and generates below average returns compared to rivals such as Cisco and F5 which have R&D in the 10-11% of revenue range" — Wedbush Securities (6/13/12); "The main issue that is impacting Juniper's opex structure is the number of new projects the company has undertaken ..., each of which required big new investments. ... In our view, the underwhelming initial reception for MobileNext and QFabric is evidence that the company should adopt a more prudent investment strategy going forward .... We also believe that Juniper should address its cost structure ... including exiting lagging businesses" — Bank of America Merrill Lynch (5/23/12)"

""The large variability in capex versus original guidance (just set six months ago) demonstrates some lack of capital discipline within the company." — Citigroup (July 25, 2012); "On the upstream side, we question whether the company has the bandwidth to operate in over 20 countries... We do not believe a company of Hess's size will get credit in the market for a shotgun approach to investing across the world." — Citigroup (July 20, 2012); "The key issue for HES in our mind is capital intensity and the inability of management in recent years to live within the limits of its cash flows. Furthermore, given the lack of growth in oil and gas production over the last 5 years, there is a case to be made that the company should return more cash back to shareholders instead of attempting to grow at all." — Citigroup (July 20, 2012); "We are skeptical that Hess's current global growth strategy will yield superior returns or growth, as its organization appears to be spread thin and we think it is unlikely that Hess can have a competitive advantage in all the areas it is pursuing." — Goldman Sachs (June 11, 2012); "We believe Hess should consider further reducing its exploration program beyond what has already been announced. It is not clear to us given the levels of exploration spending versus cash flows that a mid-sized oil company can successfully pursue a global exploration strategy as Hess has attempted... The company's high-risk/high-potential exploration and acreage strategy since 2009 is thus far not yielding favorable results." — Goldman Sachs (June 11, 2012); "The 7% pullback in the stock was severe, and in our view, is indicative of a loss of investor confidence in HES's execution capabilities, following a string of production misses and a lack of notable exploration success, in addition to a growing deficit between capex and cash flow. Entering 1Q'12, HES had missed its production guidance for four of the preceding 5 quarters, meaning execution was at a premium." — Simmons (April 26, 2012); "Although we think the company's underlying asset value is worth significantly higher than our near-term price target, we now believe the shares will likely continue to struggle throughout this year and will trade substantially below our estimate of its fair asset value due to the lack of visible catalysts as well increased investor skepticism over management's execution record..." — Barclays (April 26, 2012)"

"“We think the frequency of HES's analyst meetings could be increased. How about biannual?” — Merrill Lynch (May 22, 2006). “The key question, in our view, going forward is whether Hess is starting to spread itself too thin via a growing project portfolio list.” — Goldman Sachs (April 26, 2006). “The aggressive upstream exploration story driven by John O'Connor is under pressure, as a run of dry holes is looming larger. With no completion target, the story has an uncertain future, costs are rising and prospects are pushed from this year to next.” — Deutsche Bank (April 26, 2006). “This company has not historically shown good capital discipline, delivering one of the highest F&D costs in the sector and one of the lower returns on capital.” — Bank of America (January 27, 2005). “Despite a new record quarterly oil price environment and sequentially much higher production levels, worldwide unit profitability rose only marginally ... because of continued heavy hedging loss (no surprise here) and a sharp increase of costs.” — Lehman Brothers (January 27, 2005). “Hess's long-term share performance has been hampered by an inability to show sustainable volume growth and value creation in the upstream...As a result, Hess's 10-year share price performance has been the weakest among the integrated oils.” — Merrill Lynch (October 21, 2004). “Following several years of missed targets, [Hess] has refrained from offering production guidance much beyond the current year. Whilst this plays to its benefit by avoiding the risk of over promising / under delivery, it also clouds the outlook over the coming years. HES's reluctance to commit to any long-term production objectives is understandable in the context of a poor track record where a succession of aggressive growth targets has been missed.” — Citigroup Smith Barney (October 11, 2004). “Hess needs to spend aggressively to arrest its imploding production profile. The risk is whether these capital investments will generate competitive returns, a concern to investors given the recent history of production and reserve disappointments...” — Merrill Lynch (April 29, 2004). “The question, in our view, is whether Hess is truly creating a culture that is focused on profitability first.” — Goldman Sachs (February 6, 2004)."

""To summarize, the key growth assets underperform, expectations are lowered, and a key investor fear – Hess's propensity to outspend cash flow – is stoked by an early upward revision to the 2012 budget." — Deutsche Bank (April 25, 2012); "Flowing through from the high capex and low growth, the company has the lowest yield and lowest dividend growth combination amongst major oils." — Deutsche Bank (July 27, 2011); "The company has continued to be a net issuer of equity...at a time when most of the other majors have been buying stock back... and has produced low return on capital employed for most of the present decade." — Bernstein (October 22, 2009); "The company's refining and marketing assets remain emphatically not for sale, despite the fact that redeploying downstream invested capital...to the much higher returning upstream would make solid business sense." — JP Morgan (September 17, 2009); "Hindsight: We can't believe you're back to more hedging." — Deutsche Bank (September 29, 2008); "Notwithstanding the romance of Leon Hess's development of the company from one oil delivery truck into a multi-billion dollar enterprise, by the early 2000's the company's reputation with investors was one of a struggling oil essentially run as if it were private." — Deutsche Bank (August 7, 2007); "Historic mistrust, with certain major potential shareholders reluctant to invest based on the issues faced in the past with a distinctly mixed record of shareholder value creation to say the least. Ultimately, John Hess is still in charge, and that provides a major link to the past. Hess has historically shown poor performance on operational metrics..." — Deutsche Bank (August 6, 2007); "The change in 2008 estimated EPS is due to our belief in the industry-wide cost pressures being sustained into next year and the company's inability to manage them quite as successfully as do the Majors." — Bank of America (April 26, 2007); "Continued exploration losses are value destructive." — Deutsche Bank (October 25, 2006); "It is important to highlight that the highest paid companies are also the best performers, with the arguable exception of Hess. He is a dynastic executive left in a business that resonates with family fortunes..." — Deutsche Bank (August 24, 2006)."

""Hess's near-term strategic outlook is fairly clear-cut: the company must improve. [Hess] will need to regain project management credibility after disappointing results..." — Bank of America (January 6, 2004); "Having lagged the recent rebound in the sector—adding to what has been long-term secular underperformance..." — Goldman Sachs (December 9, 2003); "We believe Hess had four issues it needed to overcome: Top management was not as strong as at its competitors; E&P asset base was very mature and short-lived; Balance sheet was weak; Capital discipline was expressed in words, but not practiced in actions." — Goldman Sachs (December 9, 2003); "Will perpetual restructuring mode ever end?" — Goldman Sachs (October 14, 2003); "Hess released another quarter of disappointing earnings...While offshore development delays are not uncommon for large oil and gas projects, Hess has consistently disappointed the market with operational performance over the past several quarters." — Bank of America (July 29, 2003); "[Hess] a company that we consider the most fundamentally flawed E&P or integrated in our investment grade universe... Unfortunately, these days a lack of astoundingly bad news is cause for celebration!" — Morgan Stanley Credit Research (May 1, 2003); "With below cost of capital ROACE, high upstream costs, and strategic impediments due to recurring high debt levels, we believe the Hess shares should continue to trade at a material discount vs. the integrated peer group. Moreover...we remain unconvinced that the company's planned upstream growth will lead to improved profitability and returns." — UBS Warburg (April 30, 2003); "The burden of high debt levels and low returns, with abandoned targets and a weak near-term production profile, leaves the management in need of reestablishing credibility and share price performance." — Deutsche Bank (April 8, 2003); "The material erosion of shareholder equity so soon after the completion of these two acquisitions is a clear disappointment... [It] also must raise questions as to the acquisition due diligence process within Hess...We believe investors' confidence in the company has been materially undermined..." — UBS Warburg (February 3, 2003)"

""We, therefore, encourage you to support the changes sought by our fellow shareholders at Elliott Management. We intend to support Elliott's proposed proxy slate because it serves the long-term interests of the Company and its owners." — First Pacific Advisors, February 6, 2017; "Independent members of this board, who own less than 0.1% of outstanding shares, continue to disregard the overwhelming publicly expressed desire for leadership change from the company's largest long-term owners, including Orbis." — Adam Karr, Orbis Investment Management, March 3, 2017; "Lion Point believes that Elliott's plan for value creation can reverse the past and set new Arconic on a better path to creating shareholder value." — Lion Point Capital, February 16, 2017; "It's a CEO problem—there has been no value created." — Sarat Sethi, Douglas Lane & Associates, February 30, 2017; "We also acknowledge activism could create an opportunity to highlight value that is even higher at $40 (and in the range of the activist target) to account for significant margin expansion from current levels, premised on a market P/E of 17x and earnings of $2.37." — Morgan Stanley, February 1, 2017; "In our view, a new CEO is an important positive catalyst to more expeditiously improve the company's operations and increase its margins while rationalizing capital expenditures / M&A opportunities." — Wolfe Research, February 6, 2017; "Elliott has a good case. Investor returns under Chief Executive Klaus Kleinfeld, who took over at Alcoa in 2008 and now runs Arconic, have been poor. Investors have seen their stock lose well over half its value under Kleinfeld." — Reuters, February 1, 2017; "Saving Klaus from Paul Singer is top priority for its management. Drain the swamp. Let Elliott Management's recommendations prevail. Too many good people are getting hurt throughout this Company." — Glass Door, March 17, 2017; "If I were an Arconic shareholder, I would be voting the "blue card" to bring the dissidents to power." — Pittsburgh Tribune, March 13, 2017"

""It was always on the radar that they were going to run out of customers for cell line development specifically. So, the general idea was let's try to expand the range of applications to capture more customers that are not necessarily doing cell line development or are doing immuno-oncology or antibody discovery." — Former BLI scientist; "They've kind of gotten rid of cell line development and they've stopped touting it..." — Former BLI employee; "I think cell line development is a hard sell because everybody's got their version of what they think is the best path, a little bit of witchcraft which biology has sometimes, In CLD, it is very difficult to make an unambiguous statement. And that's because you're trying to say the counterfactual; if I would have run it on this other system, it would have been better. The only way to do that is to literally learn 300 independent campaigns on both types of systems and then measure the variability and the distributions of the cells." — Former BLI executive; "The status quo is to transfect the CHO cells... They have data, know it works, know the cost, have already bought the systems; it's sunk cost. And here comes this really expensive machine, and it's like, we can do things better. You go, that looks really cool, and I think that is true, but how can you prove it to me? Maybe that was a fluke. How much money am I prepared to spend to figure out whether that's true?" — Former BLI executive; "Sometimes pharma's are just rich and they just buy them. And it's just done. Sometimes they're very skeptical and have a hard time figuring out if they can spend $2 million. It's a lot of money. It's very difficult to prove how you are better without running something like a $200-million study, and who the hell is going to run a $200-million study with the risk of it not looking good if your total market is $300 million and your pricing actually takes that market down to $80 million. The return's not there." — Former BLI executive"

""The continued string of negative news has left management with some work to do to rebuild investor confidence." — Bank of America Credit Research (January 31, 2003); "We believe Hess should trade at a 5%-10% discount to the Domestic Oils based on...[and 3] Damaged management credibility." — JP Morgan (January 30, 2003); "Credibility matters, and Hess has little of it left." — Credit Suisse (January 30, 2003); "REITERATE UNDERPERFORM; E&P DETERIORATION A SERIOUS ISSUE There is no change to our Underperform rating for Hess despite the continued slide in its shares. We believe large write downs at its LLOG and Triton acquisitions coupled with continued erosion in its base E&P properties point to serious problems with the company's exploration and production business." — Goldman Sachs (January 30, 2003); "...While investors remain worried over the management's seemingly sloppy attitude to shareholders...We are increasingly concerned over Hess's continuing ability to generate these 'non recurring' charges ...Carelessness with shareholders equity is a worrying trait in any corporation." — Credit Suisse (January 30, 2003); "...We believe even if the disposal program is completed the portfolio improvement is unlikely to be sufficient to result in returns in excess of Hess's cost of capital." — UBS Warburg (November 5, 2002); "...Production forecasts were revised lower supporting concerns that we have had regarding economic value creation..." — Morgan Stanley (October 25, 2002); "Hess's stock fell 12% today on the back of a downgrade to 2003 and 2004 production expectations and a further write-down of the LLOG properties. While neither of these things is devastating to the company's value, we believe that management credibility at Hess has been stretched very thin...This charge will be seen by investors as a continuation of a disturbing pattern of special charges at Hess...again calling into question the company's judgment..." — Credit Suisse (October 24, 2002)."

""As I think about growth, so Keith, obviously, you guys have done a really good job driving very healthy organic growth and William and Steve have done the same thing and bolstering that with M&A and JV. So how does this change, given that you're going to go through an integration? I know you have an unlevered balance sheet and you alluded to that in your prepared remarks. But how should we be thinking about the growth profile of the combined company 6 months, 12 months and longer than that out?" — Brian Tanquilut – Jefferies. "Well, I'll go first and ask Steve to chime in with me here. Let's -- so I don't see this having, certainly, a negative effect. I mean, perhaps even accelerating the growth profile. Our balance sheet is clean. The volume of inbound calls and interest that we're getting from hospital and health system partners, in particular, is -- continues to increase. So I don't see anything that would curtail that. And we're really excited about the new growth opportunities. And Steve I'm going to let you all take that." — Keith Myers – Chairman & CEO, LHC Group. "This -- we've talked for a long time in our investor conferences in discussions around trajectory and continuing that trajectory. And both companies have been on pretty amazing trajectories. And so this is continuing the trajectory. So if you just think about Kanye West, bigger, faster, stronger, right, so we're delevering the balance sheet. This is going to be a straightforward integration.... So I think we're going to grow better and faster. I'd rather us do this together, because I think we can grow better, faster, lower risk, higher return profile doing this together than we could possibly do it separately." — C. Steven Guenthner – President, Principal Financial Officer, Treasurer & Secretary, Almost Family."

""Management's initial announcement on asset sales and increased payouts to shareholders, while significant, appeared to undershoot the high expectations that had buoyed the share price at the start of the year" — Border to Coast. "Keisei initially announced it would sell 1% of its OLC stake, which disappointed the market. The value of the OLC stake has different meanings for different shareholders of Keisei; however, if it continues this path, they can unlock capital to fund growth in capex or return funds to shareholders." — MFS Investment Management. "In our view, Keisei Electric Railway is a discounted asset with the potential to unlock significant value by reducing its 20% stake in Oriental Land." — Franklin Templeton. "We also expect the company to monetize its 20% stake in Oriental Land, which equals Keisei's entire enterprise value" — Boston Common Asset Management. "The entire market capitalization of Keisei is $6.6bn, and they've got this $8bn post-tax investment sitting there. On top of that you're also getting this profitable rail business thrown in there basically for free." — Fidelity International. "The Fund considers that the valuation [of Keisei Electric Railway] is extremely inaccurate." — Sparx Japan Small-Cap Fund. "...it's remarkable that Keisei Electric trades at about a 50% discount to the value of that stake in Oriental Land, as well as the value of the land and the railway line business as well." — AVI Asset Value Investors. "Keisei Railways ... have significant latent value hidden in net cash or cross-holdings. Through the efforts of both ourselves and others, we believe this value has a strong chance of being unlocked amidst this new atmosphere of reform in Japan." — M&G Investments."

""This process will unlock the tremendous value of our real estate portfolio as we create two distinct public companies, which allows us, to attain a much lower blended cost of capital and allows us to move into markets and places and - where we cannot go today." — Peter Carlino, Chairman and CEO, Nov 16, 2012; "The Company's board of directors believes that a REIT conversion could provide substantial benefits to the Company and its shareholders given its significant real estate holdings." — Press Release, August 25, 2014; "Investors favor companies with greater strategic focus on our core businesses. We are exploring the opportunity to improve upon the excellent shareholder return created since MSG's spin-off over four years ago by separating our business into two companies, each with its own distinct value proposition for investors." — Tad Smith, CEO, October 27, 2014; "We believe the separation would provide a lower weighted average cost of capital and an attractive financial platform to take advantage of future opportunities to create long term shareholder value" — Anthony Sanfilippo, CEO, November 6, 2014; "We, together with our board, have been working with our financial and legal advisers, to make sure we are best positioned to increase shareholder value over the long term, including potentially, through the formation of a REIT." — Keith Smith, CEO, October 30, 2014; "The structure of the agreement enables us to capture the value of Red Lobster and establish a market validated valuation of its real estate" — Chuck Ledsinger, Lead Director of Darden's Board, May 16, 2014"

""First, we're excited about the prospect of operating a smaller group of stores at the corporate level, but also excited about our franchisees growing sales and growing the performance of these stores they've acquired from us as well as the new store counts that will result with these refranchised units" — Sonic Q2'17 Earnings Call, 3/28/17; "Over the long term the financial resources and capabilities brought by our expanded network of developmental licensees create opportunities for accelerated expansion and innovation" — McDonald's Analyst Day, 3/1/17; "The material financial benefits [of refranchising] to highlight [are that it] will reduce volatility, will increase free cash flow, will accelerate its growth off a higher base, and return excess capital to shareholders. We're upping our franchise mix target, now to at least 98% from at least 96%" — YUM! Analyst Day, 10/11/16; "[R]efranchising [is] intended to mitigate the trough associated with transformation and fund investments and initiatives that improve the guest experience and create opportunities for growth" — Panera Q1'16 Earnings Call, 4/27/16; "And what we found is that by refranchising, we were able to put restaurants back in the hands of some of the best operators in the system. We were able to accelerate a remodeling initiative that we thought was very strategically critical to us. And it allowed us to refocus...on developing the brand around the world, and supporting our franchisees, not trying to run 1,200 restaurants all over the world" — Burger King Worldwide at Piper Jaffray Conference, 6/10/14"

""I would say for the long term, I'd rather be invested in a company that has that type of a portfolio balance." (1Q19 Earnings Call, 5/8/19) — Marathon Management. "The gasoline supply to these locations serves as the foundation for our assured product placement strategy... This automatic placement is the key enabler to the overall optimization of our integrated supply and distribution network." (Analyst Day, 12/4/18) — Marathon Management. "When you look at the connectivity of our gathering systems with our intermediate and long-haul pipelines, we have that ability to provide reliable intake to our refineries and our processing facilities." (Investor Day, 12/4/18) — Marathon Management. "There's no bright line, there's no specific guidance that the IRS or parties whatever specifically provide. I think the key is that it is an arm's length agreement, and things that would incorporate full requirements contracts for extended periods of time are not arm's length agreements." (Speedway Review Call, 9/5/17) — Marathon Management. "Our strong position in company retail presents many opportunities to continue to grow organically with mid-teen rate of return type projects, as well as the national footprint gives us an opportunity to look at acquisition opportunities as they present themselves." (Investor Day, 12/4/18) — Marathon Management. "Fosters further growth opportunities", "Enhances projects via volume commitments", and enables MPLX to "Provide logistics solutions to MPC's nationwide refining footprint." (MPLX Presentation, 8/14/19) — Marathon Management."

"As the company matures, we believe management needs to offer a more sophisticated capital allocation strategy to reflect its size (both revenue and market capitalization) and stage of development. — Goldman Sachs, Sept. 2016; As Cognizant matures and its topline growth slows, the company’s overall capital return profile is increasingly important to investors. — Bernstein, Aug. 2016; Cognizant’s investors increasingly expect the company to return cash in the form of dividends and buybacks, specifically as its growth rates slow down and the stock transitions from being a growth story to a GARP/value stock — J.P. Morgan, Sept. 2016; …We believe the introduction of a regular dividend could broaden the appeal of the stock to new investors, while enhancing total shareholder return. In our view, gone are the days when investors look at the initiation of a dividend by a growth company as a negative. — Jefferies, Oct. 2016; In the recent past (last six to nine months), our positive bias of the company was largely driven by our belief that Cognizant would take on a more Accenture-like model, prioritizing capital returns to shareholders, especially in the form of a consistent dividend. On that front, we are disappointed with the company and have not seen any signs of the company moving in that direction. Given that this aspect of the story was a big driver of our Outperform rating, our diminished confidence has contributed to the downgrade. — William Blair, Nov. 2016"

"All of the SCS devices at the five-year mark really start to drop off. I'm always curious about what it is that happens after a year or two for these patients...No one has really studied that. That's the problem. For all SCS devices, I would say 50% have reached the point at 5 years where it's no longer helpful enough to keep using them and maybe even consider an explant. At 5 years they're explants or they move on to a different therapy but continue to use the stim, or they may even stop using the stim. We've seen patients say I am using the stim but I still need injections every three months. Or I need oral opioids. Some go on to have pumps. SCS was originally sold as a good opportunity to avoid having to return to ongoing injections or opioids. There was a retrospective review of changes in opioid use with stim because many companies would say "Oh, you know, you just how to solve the opioid crisis", but they found that you know with stim opioids don't necessarily go down. — High volume Nevro implanter; Long term, stimulators don't work as well. Patient are desperate, say it works, then say it doesn't work. It's usually a misleading trial in a patient. The published data says stim doesn't work in 30% of patients. — High volume implanter and moderate Nevro user; There were less than 10 neuromodulation studies in 50 years, only 6 even worth quoting. There's not much evidence. — Longtime Medtronic executive in SCS"

"[We] continue to view U.S. fiber assets as inherently less attractive due to the expensive availability of competitive fiber supply in the U.S. and the resulting less attractive growth and return characteristics of domestic U.S. fiber. — Former CEO James Taiclet, May 2019; With respect to outdoor small cells and fiber in the U.S., we've been a little bit less aggressive than some of our peers, in large part because when we run the numbers and input all of the modeling assumptions into our 10-year DCF, which we use for all of our investment evaluation, we arrive at overall returns that don't quite hit where we need them to hit. And for that reason, we've chosen to deploy our capital elsewhere. — Senior Director of Investor Relations, March 2019; To be big in fiber, by necessity, you probably have to have an enterprise business, which is a very, very different business. It’s just different. And we tend to stick with the stuff we know. — CEO Jeffrey Stoops, August 2019; We continue to be focused on macro sites...I mean, you used the word small cells, but really what small cells is, is fiber. And our shareholders want us to be a tower company, so we are very much focused on that. We will continue to look at exclusive pieces of real property where we might have some advantages that could lead to small cells, but to move into the fiber business is not something that we're pursuing today. — CEO Jeffrey Stoops, May 2017"

"We use [a lower EBITDA multiple] for MPC given its relatively less desirable refining asset footprint. — Jefferies, August 2016; Rain or Shine, Buybacks through Cycle; Upgrade to Buy — Jefferies, March 2023; MPC is a top-tier refining operator with commercial excellence...MPC [is our] top refining pick even after dramatic outperformance over roughly the past two years. — Raymond James, January 2023; [With] SU's older asset base and the current rising cost environment, it could be difficult to lower absolute operating costs. — J.P. Morgan, April 2022; SU continues to execute well under CEO Kruger, with strong operational results at nearly every Upstream and Downstream asset... — J.P. Morgan, November 2024; While our unchanged target price of $40 drives an attractive total return including dividends of ~19%, we remain In Line rated as we gain more comfort with the newly acquired business line and company's ability to execute on its pro forma financial plan. — Evercore, June 2023; During 2023 and 2024, NRG has been steadfast in executing against their operational and financial framework, which has yielded benefits as the company exceeded its adj. EBITDA guidance mid-point in '23 and raised its '24 guidance. — Evercore, January 2025; In a somewhat surprising tactic, PSX management talked down the potential [sum-of-the-parts] upside (i.e., [stating that the Company is] fairly valued). — Piper Sandler, March 2025"

""The data does not support the board's argument that the integrated strategy results in superior returns over the long-term..." — ISS; "In a campaign inextricably predicated on the notion that P66's asset mix is a favorable differentiator, the board's inability to draw what we consider to be a strong, straightforward throughline to shareholder value is a bust." — Glass Lewis; "Phillips 66's current conglomerate structure appears to be suboptimal for sustained financial growth." — Egan-Jones; "PSX has established a track record of providing selective and ambiguous disclosure that obfuscates results, makes it difficult to assess decisions, and creates impediments to evaluating performance." — ISS; "These issues stack on what we consider to be fairly disconcerting corporate governance considerations, including a dubious commitment to good faith engagement, a questionable and counterproductive realignment of key oversight roles and a late-stage candidate pivot which seems to call into question the board's prior candor. These issues should, in our view, be of significant concern to P66 investors." — Glass Lewis; "Currently, the Company has a combined Chairman and CEO leadership structure, a classified board, and over-tenured directors. A plethora of these problematic governance practices appear to be a driving force in the Company's underperformance." — Egan-Jones"

"So all those things, we feel, will function to get us in that intermediate term back to those double-digit margins. — Richard Kramer, CEO of Goodyear, Nov 14 2017; When we are able to recover the margin we've lost from a price versus raw material perspective, that is going to mean a return to something like we saw during that 2014 to 2016 period. And we're confident that we can get back to those levels and work to go beyond. — Darren Wells, Former Goodyear EVP / CFO, Jan 16 2019; I think the question for us and the drive is to think about what it takes to get ourselves back to double-digit margins. And we see a lot of opportunity, as we combine Goodyear and Cooper to take cost out... there are some near-term opportunities that are very big. — Darren Wells, Former Goodyear EVP / CFO, Jun 16 2021; We think it is very realistic intermediate term to get to that double-digit type margin again... the electric vehicle tires are going to be the next seed that helps us continue in that direction... — Darren Wells, Former Goodyear EVP / CFO, Feb 14 2022; ...that will put us in a really good spot to get to that 8% in, call it, the near term... And with 10%, it's a realistic possibility in more the intermediate term, call that 3 to 5 years. — Darren Wells, Former Goodyear EVP / CFO, Aug 5 2022"

""In 2003, Hess's ROACE of 7.6% is the lowest in its peer group and is well below Hess's cost of capital of 10%-12%." — UBS Warburg (September 22, 2000); "Hess announced a broad-based restructuring program involving reductions in overhead and capital expenditures...Regarding the stock, we maintain our longstanding Neutral rating. Investor interest is not expected to become material in this company until returns resemble the cost of capital on a sustainable basis." — Morgan Stanley (December 14, 1998); "Exploration expense is significantly above average...Hess, with a market capitalization of $4.5 billion, had 1997 exploration expense of $373 million; in comparison, Exxon, with a market capitalization of $175 billion, had exploration expense of $753 million. (In other words, Exxon's exploration expense is only twice as high as Hess's, while its market capitalization is almost 40 times as high)." — Goldman Sachs (September 4, 1998); "While Hess has not been an earnings story for many years now, the absence of profits is getting stale." — UBS (January 23, 1998); "Given the continued inconsistency in Hess results...we would not add to positions at these levels" — Smith Barney (October 23, 1997); "Hess continues to be the perennial turnaround story." — Paine Webber (May 7, 1997)."

""However, logic suggests that once the plc:Ltd discount exceeds 14%, as it presently does (although only slightly), it becomes incrementally harder to justify an off-market Ltd buyback to a large portion of the total BHP Billiton shareholder base" — Macquarie, February 17, 2011; "If the DLC were to be collapsed, then every dollar returned via a buyback would be done through the buyback of Ltd shares which provided sufficient franking credits existed, could be done at a ~14% discount to the prevailing share price on the day." — UBS, July 14, 2014; "Despite having a comparable average dividend yield of ~2.5%, over the past 10 years, Exxon returned a further ~US$225bn via buybacks taking its overall average annual dividend and buyback yield to 7.3%" — Macquarie, July 29, 2014; "No capital return (this time) We think the market is (quite) disappointed with the lack of buyback / capital return." — Bank of America, August 19, 2014; "Despite >US$30b spent, failed tilts at RIO and Potash Corp and overpaying for US Shale suggest M&A is not BHP's raison d'être." — Citigroup, May 27, 2016; "At spot prices BHP would have even stronger free cash flow generation, largely thanks to iron ore, and be able to significantly increase shareholder returns." — Citigroup, Feb 21, 2017"

""We are repositioning our Verifi process control technology business. Market adoption has been below our expectations, and the business is not producing the returns we want. As a result, we have decided to operate Verifi as a more targeted niche offering, and have reduced our investment in growing the business." — Hudson La Force, CFO, W.R. Grace (7/23/14); "Verify is a new marketplace...We have a head start in this market. It's a relatively small business today but growing at very nice mid double-digit rates and we're investing in this business in terms of both its stickiness and its ability to drive performance with the Ready Mix customers" — Greg Poling, Fmr CEO, GCP (5/17/16); "Our capital investments could be slightly higher in 2018 than our target of 5% of sales due to investments required for our new VERIFI contracts." — Dean Freeman, Fmr CFO (2/27/18); "With an estimated addressable market of approximately $1 billion, VERIFI is a key source of growth for GCP and remains a top investment priority." — Narasimhan Srinivasan, VP Strategy & Corp Dev, GCP (8/7/18); "We've committed to having sales generated through the VERIFI program of $50 million to $75 million by the end of 2021." — Randall Dearth, CEO, GCP (2/26/20)"

""In terms of exploration and production, we are different than the other independents. We are the most global." — John Hess, Chairman & CEO Hess, June 2010. "We want to maintain our global presence and our global reach because we believe that the globe provides many opportunities now and will also in the future. So we want to maintain that global scale and capability." — Gregory Hill, EVP Worldwide E&P Hess, November 2012. "We are skeptical that Hess's current global growth strategy will yield superior returns or growth, as its organization appears to be spread thin and we think it is unlikely that Hess can have a competitive advantage in all the areas it is pursuing." — Goldman Sachs, June 11, 2012. "On the upstream side, we question whether the company has the bandwidth to operate in over 20 countries...We do not believe a company of Hess's size will get credit in the market for a shotgun approach to investing across the world...Running such a diverse, global operation is challenging and given the size of the company it is not apparent that HES gains any incremental value from its integration and diversity. We believe this level of diversity has diminishing margins of return for investors." — Citigroup, June 20, 2012."

"In 2012, Aqua Pennsylvania adopted an income tax accounting method change, implemented on Essential Utilities' 2012 federal income tax return. This accounting method change allows a tax deduction for qualifying utility asset improvements that were formerly capitalized for tax purposes, and was implemented in response to a June 2012 rate order issued by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission.....On March 31, 2020, the Company changed the method of tax accounting for certain qualifying infrastructure investments at its Peoples Natural Gas subsidiary, its largest natural gas subsidiary in Pennsylvania. In March 2020 and June 2022, the Company completed the Peoples Gas Acquisition. In March 2020 and June 2022, the Company changed the method of tax accounting for certain qualifying infrastructure investments at its Peoples Natural Gas and Peoples Gas subsidiaries, respectively. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the Company made a similar change for its Aqua New Jersey subsidiary, beginning with the current tax year. This change allows a tax deduction for qualifying utility asset improvement costs that were formerly capitalized for tax purposes. — Essential Utilities 10-K"

""UNP operates undoubtedly one of the best rail franchises on the continent..." — Evercore ISI; "...the inherent structural advantages of UNP's network that has made UNP our top pick in Rails for a long time." — Deutsche Bank; "...we continue to think that UNP has a structurally advantaged network with its very long length of haul and diversified biz mix." — Credit Suisse; "...stellar franchise..." — Raymond James; "A well-diversified asset base... we recognize the competitive dynamics of UNP's network– unparalleled access to Mexico and the chemicals sector in the U.S. Gulf Coast – and diversified revenue stream..." — RBC; "The most diversified franchise with a higher level of return, UNP is in a very good position..." — Bernstein; "Bottom line, we believe UNP should generate near the high end of rail OR improvement... based on UNP's premium rail franchise..." — Goldman Sachs; "...a franchise advantage over other rails..." — UBS; "Union Pacific has a desirable long-haul network with a more lucrative mix of business..." — BMO; "...consider upgrading the stock... based on the very high quality of the company's network franchise." — TD Securities"

""We are transitioning away from a program that existed for us in the past, and towards a program which concentrates on high-impact prospects. I think the areas of focus for us will still be the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, deepwater West Africa, and deepwater Southeast Asia." — John O'Connor, Fmr President Worldwide E&P Hess, April 2003. "We were known as a very high-impact explorer. I think we can say that that strategy didn't work. We spent about $5 billion on high impact exploration and we certainly didn't discover enough resources to generate acceptable returns on that $5 billion investment. So we have shifted our exploration strategy... [First] Our three primary focus areas are Gulf of Mexico, West Africa and Asia-Pacific... The second change ...Hess used to drill wells at high working interest, 80% to 100% working interest. We are not going to do that anymore." — Gregory Hill, EVP Worldwide E&P Hess, November 2012. "There is one last area ... that is Kurdistan. We see lots of hydrocarbons there, and we're shooting seismic this year and we will drill our first well next year in 2013." — Gregory Hill, EVP Worldwide E&P Hess, November 2012."

""In terms of exploration and production, we are different than the other independents. We are the most global." — John Hess, Chairman & CEO Hess, June 2010. "We want to maintain our global presence and our global reach because we believe that the globe provides many opportunities now and will also in the future. So we want to maintain that global scale and capability." — Gregory Hill, EVP Worldwide E&P Hess, November 2012. "We are skeptical that Hess's current global growth strategy will yield superior returns or growth, as its organization appears to be spread thin and we think it is unlikely that Hess can have a competitive advantage in all the areas it is pursuing." — Goldman Sachs, June 11, 2012. "On the upstream side, we question whether the company has the bandwidth to operate in over 20 countries... We do not believe a company of Hess's size will get credit in the market for a shotgun approach to investing across the world..." — Citigroup, July 20, 2012. "In multiple client conversations throughout the day we found literally no one that defended the shape, nor global strategy of Hess." — Deutsche Bank, January 30, 2013."

"“I think -- well, it's inevitable that for every CEO, the success is measured through -- with total shareholder return, how much your stock was appreciated and how much dividend were you able to pass to the shareholders. But let's not forget that this is only a surrogate point, a very good one because the market really knows how to value your operational value creation. But it is a surrogate point, where fundamental it is how much you can stay true to your purpose. And the purpose of the pharma company is to bring breakthrough products that change patients' lives. So the operational measurement of success will be our ability to have a constant flow of breakthrough innovation that significantly changes the current standards of care, and that's for the long term. So a way to measure it, for us, it is we have put out there a list of 15 potential blockbusters that could come by the year -- in 5 years, so it is by 2022 when we put it out in '18. And I think my focus would be to make sure that we deliver more than our fair risk adjustment of this number, and that will be success.” — Albert Bourla, Pfizer Chair and CEO"

"“I don’t think they have the talent right now to [meet their revenue goals]. Each class of vehicle at the time required a significant amount of research, testing. If they want to introduce 10 new vehicle models, that’s a several-year project. They would need really good relationships with the OEMs to do that. And they would probably need to get the outfitter network to be more robust. The upfitters have to be trained to do these upfits. For each incremental model they have to re-teach the upfitters. The upfitter model is attractive, but what goes unsaid is if you don’t have good upfitters, customers return the vehicles... Two [XL] guys... were traveling around the country to make up for upfitter fuck-ups. Up-fitters were fucking up all the time.” — Former XL Employee D; “Rivian, etc. has a skateboard chassis—it’s all flat. They’ve really packaged it in such a way that it’s pretty clean. You don’t have that... every vehicle that XL wants to do, they need a different package for, because it’s different underneath... bracketry’s different, dimensions are different, everything’s different.” — Former XL Employee H"

"“There was a liver a month ago...it was an infarction, that part of it had died...one of my colleagues was already at a point of no return in the recipient operation. He had already started before realizing that this was happening...we ended up having to use that liver and, sure enough, post-transplant...the right lobe of the liver just was completely dead... The [TransMedics] procuring surgeon could feel it, but it was not reported...that’s just the first part of the story. Fast forward three weeks later, another colleague, we had another liver on pump for a different patient...and again, this time, the right lobe of the liver felt off...we called TransMedics...we’re nervous because of what happened with our previous patient...the response was ‘Wow, yours is the only center that is having these issues,’ which is an outright lie… it’s just a fucking lie. It’s a lie that we’re the only center that’s having these problems but that was the communication to us.” — Head of transplant surgery at a major center; high-volume TransMedics user, who intends to terminate usage"

""But life has changed. It's changed dramatically in the last few years. And our model needs to change to reflect that. The supply of vets is super challenging. And that's led to salary growth not just in vets, but in nurses and in practice managers. And if your already a young practice, that solid growth hits you disproportionately harder than it does in mature practices. That path to profitability of younger practices has lengthened and has delayed returns to our JVPs. It's also increasing that cash support that we've had to put into those businesses. We've been too focused on practice rollout rather than driving cash from our invested practices. And given the recent high number of openings, we have so many startup practices and we expect them to be loss-making in their early years. Typically, a practice becomes cash-generative around year five, and we expect that revenue to build as the customer base builds, remembering that our practices start off with no clients whatsoever. People don't easily change their vet." — PETS:LN Earnings Call, Nov 27 2018"

""You do have fleet managers that are very savvy and they check their fuel spending. It's the guys that don't care about the PR, they care about performance. Those guys would be calling me daily being like, ‘Dude, this thing's broken down. I'm not seeing any improvement, if anything maybe 1% to 2% per $25,000.’ There's no return on investment, zero." — Former XL Employee A; "A lot of utility companies would complain about the results and say they weren't meeting expectations." — Former XL Employee D; "At 65 mph, they're done. 5 - 45 mph is their optimal range; stop and go is ideal for them. It's just sort of extra weight above 65 mph." — Former XL Employee A; "We saw specifically with the F-150s, when they came on to the fleets, I was looking at the data from it: ‘Wow, these vehicles are getting a huge amount of savings!’ Well, the bigger impact was on idling… They saved more in gas from that alone than they did from the hybrid system. It was like 30-40% in savings just from making sure people used idling shutoff." — Former XL Employee I"

"Coffman and Heim offer focused experience in refining and midstream operations, which makes them logical additions. Cornelius has a well-rounded perspective of the industry...[Stacy] Nieuwoudt offers an important perspective through her experience as an industry investor and analyst. — ISS, May 12, 2025; Critically, we expect the identified Elliott nominees would challenge prevailing internal narratives which seem to belie, among other things, a disconcerting satisfaction with a less than laudatory operational arc, a staunch but otherwise questionable defense of an ineffective strategic tack and an increasingly dubious commitment to sound corporate governance. — Glass Lewis, May 10, 2025; Elliott's nominees possess a strong mix of best-in-class industry expertise and experience and have the potential to unlock value for shareholders... — Egan-Jones, May 1, 2025; The data does not support the board's argument that the integrated strategy results in superior returns over the long-term... — ISS, May 12, 2025"

""[T]he last minute exercise of the first right of refusal to buy a big block of franchise stores in 2015 ...is a perfect example of how misguided your incentive compensation structure is and how poor strategic planning can lead to poor capital allocation decisions" — Howard Penney, Hedgeye, 10/17/16; "[T]he most recent acquisition (38 units in the 3Q15) has weighed on earnings and came with a rich multiple, adjusting for the foregone royalties" — John Glass, Morgan Stanley, 7/25/16; "[R]eturn metrics suffered from the company's FY15 decision to acquire a large number of franchisees...[which] resulted in lower operating margins and financial returns as incremental capital was deployed to eliminate a high margin royalty revenue stream" — John Zolidis, Buckingham, 7/26/16; "Acquiring franchise stores increases business risk...Why in a slowing sales[,] lower return environment would the parent company want even greater exposure to the volatility in the business?" — Howard Penney, Hedgeye, 6/13/16"

""I am proud of the accomplishments of the Board and management team." — Glenn Tilton, Lead Independent Director, April 2025; "But when you look at what we’ve done over the long term, we’ve been on a great and accelerating path to growth and enhancing our ability to return capital to shareholders." — Mark Lashier, CEO, April 2025; "I’ve had board members tell me that they’re just stunned at the progress that we’ve been able to make in such a short period of time." — Mark Lashier, CEO, April 2025; "We’ve completed the strategic priorities that we laid out in 2022, enhanced in 2023, and committed to achieving by the end of 2024. I am proud of the work our employees have done to accomplish these important priorities and deliver on our commitments to shareholders while maintaining industry-leading safety performance." — Mark Lashier, CEO, January 2025; "You simply don’t achieve results like this without a high functioning, deeply engaged board." — Bob Pease, Independent Director, March 2025"

""I am proud of the accomplishments of the Board and management team." — Glenn Tilton, Lead Independent Director, April 2025; "But when you look at what we've done over the long term, we've been on a great and accelerating path to growth and enhancing our ability to return capital to shareholders." — Mark Lashier, CEO, April 2025; "I've had board members tell me that they're just stunned at the progress that we've been able to make in such a short period of time." — Mark Lashier, CEO, April 2025; "We've completed the strategic priorities that we laid out in 2022, enhanced in 2023, and committed to achieving by the end of 2024. I am proud of the work our employees have done to accomplish these important priorities and deliver on our commitments to shareholders while maintaining industry-leading safety performance." — Mark Lashier, CEO, January 2025; "You simply don't achieve results like this without a high functioning, deeply engaged board." — Bob Pease, Independent Director, March 2025"

""I am proud of the accomplishments of the Board and management team." — Glenn Tilton, Lead Independent Director, April 2025; "But when you look at what we've done over the long term, we've been on a great and accelerating path to growth and enhancing our ability to return capital to shareholders." — Mark Lashier, CEO, April 2025; "I've had board members tell me that they're just stunned at the progress that we've been able to make in such a short period of time." — Mark Lashier, CEO, April 2025; "We've completed the strategic priorities that we laid out in 2022, enhanced in 2023, and committed to achieving by the end of 2024. I am proud of the work our employees have done to accomplish these important priorities and deliver on our commitments to shareholders while maintaining industry-leading safety performance." — Mark Lashier, CEO, January 2025; "You simply don't achieve results like this without a high functioning, deeply engaged board." — Bob Pease, Independent Director, March 2025"

""Our energy marketing and retail marketing businesses remain a long-term strategic part of our portfolio that generate attractive returns..." — John Hess, CEO, Hess Corp, 11/2/12; "The Board believes that Arconic has the right strategy and is executing well on that strategy." — Pat Russo, Fmr Chair, Arconic, 4/17/17; "I would say for the long term, I'd rather be invested in a company that has that type of a portfolio balance." — Gary Heminger, Fmr CEO/Chair, Marathon Petroleum 5/8/19; "[H]aving that small cell business, we believe, is a differentiator and unique to our strategy and think that it should generate significant shareholder value" — Dan Schlanger, Fmr CFO, Crown Castle, 6/6/23; "A separation of the businesses, if it were to be pursued, may not be easy, w/ mgmt. highlighting shared digital infrastructure, investment grade credit rating and a very efficient tax rate as risk factors that must be considered." — Morgan Stanley, referencing Honeywell management meetings, 11/25/24"

""Our energy marketing and retail marketing businesses remain a long-term strategic part of our portfolio that generate attractive returns..." — John Hess, CEO, Hess Corp, 11/2/12; "The Board believes that Arconic has the right strategy and is executing well on that strategy." — Pat Russo, Fmr Chair, Arconic, 4/17/17; "I would say for the long term, I'd rather be invested in a company that has that type of a portfolio balance." — Gary Heminger, Fmr CEO/Chair, Marathon Petroleum 5/8/19; "[H]aving that small cell business, we believe, is a differentiator and unique to our strategy and think that it should generate significant shareholder value" — Dan Schlanger, Fmr CFO, Crown Castle, 6/6/23; "A separation of the businesses, if it were to be pursued, may not be easy, w/ mgmt. highlighting shared digital infrastructure, investment grade credit rating and a very efficient tax rate as risk factors that must be considered." — Morgan Stanley, referencing Honeywell management meetings, 11/25/24"

"Vote AGAINST approval of dividend if PBR below 1x, ROE ranking in the bottom 50 percentile in TOPIX, and "dividend ratio below 30%" — SuMi TRUST Proxy Voting Policy. If a company's total shareholder return ratios were less than 30% and ROEs were below 8% for three consecutive years (excluding net loss-making companies), we would regard it as underpaying dividends. — Asset Management One Guidelines for Exercising Voting Rights (Japanese Equities). For Japanese issuers, we are generally supportive of dividend payouts that constitute 30 percent or more of net income — STATE STREET GLOBAL ADVISORS Global Proxy Voting and Engagement Policy. We will object if the following criteria apply (...) Dividend payout ratio is less than 25% and return on capital is below the market average for a long period of time (ROE is below the median of listed companies for the last three consecutive fiscal years) — NISSAY ASSET MANAGEMENT 2025 Policy and Criteria for Exercising Voting Rights in Japan."

"“I was involved in the decision to buy it, in 2019... The idea was to speed things up in terms of antibody discovery, with Beacon.” — Harbour Biomed ex-executive; “Yes, because again, as I said, the cost of operating it, the amount of time that we were spending troubleshooting and learning, and finally, at the end of the day, the amount of benefit that we were receiving was just not a good return on investment.” — Harbour Biomed ex-executive; “In terms of expectations against reality, I would say it's somewhere around the 50% hit or miss rate.” — Harbour Biomed ex-executive; “But given that each run ran $15,000 to $17,000, we were apprehensive about spending that kind of money on it. But from the get-go, to go in with that kind of pricing, not being able to get the level of data and output that you're expecting, I think that probably didn't work out in the right way, and the marketing tactics and the support that they decided to have.” — Harbour Biomed ex-executive"

"“...only recently has CMS initiated changes to the regulations to address IDTFs like iRhythm that furnish “indirect tests” that do not require in-person interaction and involve technicians performing computer analyses offsite or at another location. The changes, however, do not address all gaps identified by CMS relating to IDTF operations and the Medicare billing requirements. For example, CMS has not addressed billing for remote diagnostic tests that are performed from one or more IDTF or other remote locations. Our failure to comply with the applicable Medicare regulations, or regulators’ disagreement with our interpretation of the regulations as applied to indirect tests, such as the Zio Services, could result in the discontinuation of our reimbursement under the Medicare program, a requirement to return funds already paid to us, civil monetary penalties, criminal penalties, and/or exclusion from the Medicare program.” — Excerpt From iRhythm 2024 10-K"

""In terms of growth, I would say, growth is reflective of engagement. We don't have a strategy necessarily to grow the e-commerce revenue. We have a strategy to grow the engagement in the marketplace and the customer share of wallet and customer engagement and we're using both channels to do that. So we're not targeting a specific growth rate..." — Allan MacDonald, EVP, Retail. "So literally hundreds of initiatives that we have in motion and have identified can now be placed in an organized structured program for execution and tracking. And of course we are continuing our extensive programs targeting internal and external expense reduction." — Stephen Wetmore, CEO. "even operational efficiency programs that generate 20% and 30% return on invested capital are extremely valuable" — Stephen Wetmore, CEO. "You know where to Steven's opening remarks, we now have hundreds of initiatives identified in size" — Gregory Hicks, President of Retail."

"In the case of SandRidge Energy, Carl Icahn may be just the treatment the company needs.....If one takes a close look at the performance of SandRidge in the cold, hard light of reality, it is difficult to make a case for management or to argue that their performance is serving shareholders well.....Between Oct. 1, 2016 and May 1, 2018, shares in SandRidge fell from $21.27 to $14.35. This means the management and directors at SandRidge have produced a return of -32.5 percent for investors.....When a company is performing as far below industry averages as SandRidge, a shakeup is warranted.....If negative 32 percent is what this board and management can produce after a bankruptcy eliminated most of their legacy issues, it may well be time to let someone else try. — Stuart T. MacDonald, Professor of Finance, University of Central Oklahoma, What is good for you isn’t always pleasant, The Journal Record (May 8, 2018)."

"Now going back to your earlier question about market shares, currently, our company don't make independent assessment of our market share. In fact, we never disclosed a single report that's coming from the company on our market share. — Gavin Kim; Next, I'll return my attention to black hat search engine optimization. NQ unequivocally refutes the allegations filed in the report that NQ owns the domain addresses referenced in the report. NQ will share our complete list of domain addresses that NQ owns and uses in our business globally to those who would like to conduct their own due diligence on our business. The natural question that may be asked then is what is for owners of these domain names to redirect traffic to NQ? It is our hypothesis that individuals or companies are interested in selling these domain names to NQ after demonstrating that they are successfully delivering page views. — Gavin Kim"

""So goods transport was the main focus area for both pallet and smaller goods within Fetch's primary focus area. Fulfillment was an application they're building out, and we're still building that out fulfillment application out. And we're seeing early traction in that. It's a small business today. It's a small business today." — CEO Burns, JPMorgan Conf May 24, 2023. "To compete in the fast-paced, high-stakes world of e-commerce, modern distribution and fulfillment center operations are introducing increasing levels of automation. Too often these automated systems operate independently, performing very discrete tasks and processes. This collaboration with Fetch to have a turnkey solution with Momentum gives those in the e-commerce industry a competitive advantage that will optimize productivity, increase operational safety, and provide significant return on investment." — Honeywell Robotics CTO"

""Consider using return on invested capital ("ROIC") as a long- term performance metric instead of revenue or relative TSR." — Shareholder Request, FY19 Proxy; "We recognize that ROIC has a good correlation to share price in many industries, however we do not currently use ROIC as an internal performance measurement and we believe that, where possible, compensation metrics should match the day to day metrics used to run the business. We also note that return on investment metrics like ROIC are not common in the technology industry where it is critical to continuously reinvest for growth and to maintain leading edge products. We continue to believe that revenue growth is the most significant driver of our business performance and we pair revenue metrics with profitability metrics to ensure that management is focused not only on growth, but on profitable growth." — Management Response, FY19 Proxy"

"“In 2002, The New York Times published an article about Matthew DiFrisco, an analyst who downgraded Darden's stock to ‘neutral’ from ‘outperform.’ Following the downgrade, Darden's investor relations officer Matthew Stroud canceled a marketing trip with DiFrisco's clients, telling him that he needed to have an ‘outperform’ rating to enjoy such a privilege.” — The New York Times. “Some investors are protesting that Darden's idea of ‘direct engagement’ amounts to returning the phone calls of analysts and investors who agree with its strategy while ignoring calls from dissenters. ‘They've got a history of only engaging with investors and analysts who are supportive of their views,’ said one Darden shareholder, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution from the company. ‘If the board is so convinced [a Red Lobster spinoff] is such a great idea, then put it to a vote.’” — New York Post"

""In 2002, The New York Times published an article about Matthew DiFrisco, an analyst who downgraded Darden's stock to 'neutral' from 'outperform.' Following the downgrade, Darden's investor relations officer Matthew Stroud canceled a marketing trip with DiFrisco's clients, telling him that he needed to have an 'outperform' rating to enjoy such a privilege." — The New York Times. "Some investors are protesting that Darden's idea of 'direct engagement' amounts to returning the phone calls of analysts and investors who agree with its strategy while ignoring calls from dissenters. 'They've got a history of only engaging with investors and analysts who are supportive of their views,' said one Darden shareholder, who declined to give his name for fear of retribution from the company. 'If the board is so convinced [a Red Lobster spinoff] is such a great idea, then put it to a vote.'" — New York Post"

""On March 19, 2014 the company announced several changes to its bylaws which would ‘update the bylaws to address current market practices.’ However, some of the bylaw changes appear to go beyond modernization, and—in the context of an extant challenge from shareholders—call into question the board’s motivation....the nature of these particular changes, coupled with the last-minute cancelation of its formerly annual 2-day analyst conference in March, may suggest cause for concern to shareholders." — ISS; "[S]ome investors are protesting that Darden’s idea of ‘direct engagement’ amounts to returning the phone calls of analysts and investors who agree with its strategy while ignoring calls from dissenters. ‘They’ve got a history of only engaging with investors and analysts who are supportive of their views,’ said one Darden shareholder, who declined to give his" — New York Post"

""Despite a reduced investment outlook, we remain concerned with the pace of SG&A spend to support growth of owned retail doors, which could still generate lower marginal returns than anticipated leaving earnings growth challenged longer-term. Total SG&A intensity is up 600bp over the last three years." — 1/30/15 Credit Suisse. "...it looks like if you take out that $7 million of cost savings you're talking about in 4Q, you're still looking at almost 10% SG&A growth in fourth quarter against the minus 5% top line." — Research Analyst, 2/2/17 Earnings Call. "Some of it is some additional marketing around our E-Commerce business. And another item is there are some increased incentive comp this year relative to year ago, and that's really related to -- incentive comp related to lower levels of management relative to a year ago." — Thomas George (CFO), 2/2/17 Earnings Call."

""If a pyramid sales scheme obtains illegal gains by fraudulent means or disrupts the economic and social order by requiring its participants to pay fees or purchase products or services under the guise of selling products, providing services or other business activities before accepting them as members and directly or indirectly inducing or coercing them to further recruit new members in return for remuneration or rewards based on the number of recruited members and according to a certain structure consisting of multiple levels, its organizers or leaders shall be liable for criminal liabilities provided that the scheme internally has at least 30 participants of pyramid sales activities and more than three levels of recruits." — Joint Policy Directive of the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, and the Ministry of Public Security of the PRC"

""Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger has at least a cordial relationship with ValueAct CEO Mason Morfit, who is married to actress Jordana Brewster. Known for her role in the Fast & Furious films, Brewster has owned a home near Iger in the tony Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Iger and Morfit have gone on hikes together, according to the people, while Morfit and Brewster attended a screening of the Disney film Flamin' Hot in Los Angeles last summer." — Bloomberg, November 2023; "I have known Bob Iger since the time of our Fox investment (he was across the table during the Fox / Disney deal discussions in 2017). Over the years, I have used him as a sounding board for our investments in New York Times, Nintendo and a few others...I got excited when he returned to Disney a little over a year ago..." — Mason Morfit, ValueAct Co-CEO and CIO, January 2024"

"Disney Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger has at least a cordial relationship with ValueAct CEO Mason Morfit, who is married to actress Jordana Brewster. Known for her role in the Fast & Furious films, Brewster has owned a home near Iger in the tony Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Iger and Morfit have gone on hikes together, according to the people, while Morfit and Brewster attended a screening of the Disney film Flamin' Hot in Los Angeles last summer. — Bloomberg, November 2023; I have known Bob Iger since the time of our Fox investment (he was across the table during the Fox / Disney deal discussions in 2017). Over the years, I have used him as a sounding board for our investments in New York Times, Nintendo and a few others...I got excited when he returned to Disney a little over a year ago... — Mason Morfit, ValueAct Co-CEO and CIO, January 2024"

"“...The key to [profitable growth] will be [that] we will be able to live within our means and deliver, I think, very attractive financial returns on a going forward basis as I said.” — John Hess, July 2012; “Our Company has always been disciplined, always has had the goal of living within our means.” — John Hess, February 2009; “We want to live within our cash flow. We usually moderate the spending based upon what we expect the cash flow to be for the year.” — John Hess, February 2008; “Our finances, we want to live within our cash flow. If you look at our company’s past you’ll see that we’re pretty disciplined about that.” — John Hess, September 2006; “...We basically have a philosophy of managing the capital spend for the Corporation within the cash flows that the businesses throw off.” — John O’Connor, Fmr President Worldwide E&P Hess, January 2005"

"“...operating priority is simply execution...I use data to drive decisions, I set clear targets...I set the competitive benchmarks and I continuously raise the bar.” — May 2, 2013 Investor Day said by Ellen Kullman; “Relative to our five year, long-term rolling growth targets (7% rev growth, 12% earnings growth)..., we believe these goals are both appropriate and achievable. We fully endorse management’s plan to achieve them and are encouraged by progress against them.” — Letter to Trian from Alexander Cutler, DuPont’s Lead Director dated March 5, 2014; “Returning capital to shareholders has always been a priority at DuPont” — March 23, 2015 Letter from Alexander Cutler; “Trian...nominated...its own director candidates...to advance Trian’s high risk agenda to break up and add excessive debt to the Company” — March 23, 2015 Letter from Alexander Cutler."

""The comparison to companies is good. And obviously, we are a commodity company. And in the commodity space, I mean, we like it to be dependent on aluminum. We love aluminum. But unfortunately, aluminum is not gold. But fortunately, aluminum also isn't plastic, right? So we are at a good spot here. But if you want to compare our performance, we believe you've really got it compared against the peers. And the peers that you see here are really our competitors. Those are the aluminum and alumina companies that exist around the world. So when you look at that, you actually do see that Alcoa has gained 9.6% on the total shareholder returns. Whereas our peers, the real peers have lost 7.5%. That I think is an important way to look at it, and I think it's the only way to look at it in a fair, fair fashion." — Dr. Klaus Kleinfeld, May 6, 2011"

"We agree with Elliott’s assessment that there is more upside potential in the refining business...and we think Elliott’s presence itself could refocus management towards this business. — J.P. Morgan, April 2025; Where we agree with Elliott is that PSX is undervalued...we see no value for refining in the share price at current levels. — Wolfe Research, April 2025; We think that selling non-core assets, enhancing capital returns to shareholders, and improving refining profitability would result in significant outperformance. — TPH & Co., February 2025; We agree that PSX’s midstream does not reflect full value. We reinstated coverage of PSX in October and can attest that few midstream investors follow it, as it trades predominantly like a refining stock...selling some midstream assets could unlock value. — Bank of America, February 2025"

""At the present time with the current forecast we have, our 2019 should be within 5% to 7% of our 2018 EBITDA..." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO; "When the price gets substantially higher than it is today, we'll make a decision to sell [Venator]....And I think it will gradually see improving fundamentals here, and we will judiciously look at our shares, and we'll sell them at a time that makes sense for us." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO; "Putting it all together, if Europe does improve as the Americas returns to plan, our full year EBITDA will be close to the lower end of our initial EBITDA guidance of down 5% to 7% from 2018. However, if the economic conditions within those region stays at current levels, our current year EBITDA maybe down 10% or so..." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO"