Callouts & quotes from 766+ activist slides

""longer works because FD is now a detriment to the combined entity's valuation, 3) management seems unwilling to acknowledge the asset is destroying value, so 4) while the only hope is activism at this point - given management's ongoing hope that FD can rebound - the potential for activism seems low...." — Barclays – August 30, 2018; "Finally, we have also begun to field questions from investors about management's ability to successfully turnaround Family Dollar and whether DLTR would consider other strategic options...we are growing concerned that such a heavy focus of time, capital, and opex is being spent on Family Dollar with little to no fundamental improvement and that it may be better spent on the core Dollar Tree segment." — Goldman Sachs – August 30, 2018; "The market's interest in sum-of-the-parts (SOTP) and a potential break-up clearly indicates that the wheels have come off the Family Dollar bull thesis. This turnaround has stalled much too early and the core business, while producing good top-line, is experiencing margin pressure...Family Dollar a Clear Disappointment: Three years after closing on this turnaround project, comps are weak, the productivity gap to DG is as large as ever, and margins are back-tracking after initial progress. We estimate the value destruction of this deal at $7 billion...We were not fans of this transaction from the start, and it's now clear that DLTR would have been much better off today if they had not done this deal." — Wells Fargo – July 11, 2018; "While very low likelihood, in our view, DLTR could go down the path of multiple price points at Dollar Tree or simply raising the single price point. This could be done with or without the divestiture of Family Dollar stores. While, on paper, we understand the attractiveness of such a move (better comps and profit dollar growth, temporarily) we don't see the current Board or management team as amenable." — Credit Suisse – June 12, 2018; "Family Dollar's performance has disappointed investors – We have been disappointed/frustrated with Family Dollar's progression.... A 10% premium to the market for Dollar Tree implies investors are essentially getting Family Dollar for FREE...In this case, investors have essentially attributed ZERO value to Family Dollar's 8,000 stores, $10 billion of sales and $512mmE of EBIT." — RBC – June 8, 2018; "The Dollar Tree concept has been highly successful, but there remains significant opportunity to unlock value by expanding price points and we see three reasons this catalyst could arrive sooner than expected...Lastly, we believe the moment of truth is here for Family Dollar, and failure to drive a more meaningful comp improvement could leave management searching for another source of growth." — Wells Fargo – May 18, 2018"

"Okay, great. And finally, your gross margins went up sequentially, which is interesting given that your payments revenue is ramping. Can you comment that dynamic? Is that reflective of the strength within the software business [when you had some higher] ARPU in the quarter? Or are you also seeing some improvement in your payment margins based on your growing scale? — BMO Analyst, Nov 2020. Yes, a little bit of all of the above. I mean, we obviously, given the growth in customers, saw some nice increase in the subscription line churn starting to come back towards normal, again, which helped a lot. Some of the discounting measures that we had in place are going [all start there a little off balance], as you know. We do continue to kind of look for ways to drive incremental margin and payments. And I guess, the other aspect to the overall gross margin is -- as you know, we do have some legacy payment referral revenue streams. And as those volumes are covered in the quarter as well, it would have been incremental to margin? — CEO Dasilva, Nov 2020. You have the very helpful slide that shows the adoption and some of the geos and verticals. Certainly seems to be going in the right direction. I'm just kind of curious once we think about what this is going to look like maybe after we've incorporated ShopKeep and Upserve, which I believe have higher ARPUs in part because they've been successful at payments, if we should be expecting it to kick up? Or just curious on how the incorporation of those companies will impact these dynamics? — Keybanc Analyst, Feb 2021. Yes, for sure, will tick up the Upserve business in particular. The vast majority of their customers were using Upserve payments as kind of they have a really nice elegant solution that embeds Payments right into the product itself. ShopKeep, they were further along as well on the Payments journey from a customer adoption perspective, though as we've talked about, largely through a referral model, but a good percentage of their customers do use a payment solution there. And as we talked about earlier, the teams are working hard to move those or to build the infrastructure to make sure that Lightspeed Payments is available to those customers. So all told, we expect those things to really positively impact our overall penetration at a global level. And of course, that's core to what we're trying to do around here is to make sure that the vast majority of our customers worldwide take Payments. So all these things, I think, are helpful. — CFO Nussey, Feb 2021"

""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"

"And then can you talk a little bit more about the profitability in your clean energy business and with PWRcell? I mean you mentioned that you were profitable. I think that was an EBITDA comment, but I want to clarify that. And can you talk at all about the gross margins for your clean energy business? Where roughly will they be by the end of 2021 in comparison to your overall gross margin? And just how should we think of it more on like a 2 to 3-year basis as you continue to ramp? — Roth Analyst. Yes. Ross, it's York. So yes, making very good progress on gross margin optimization, a lot of focus on the bill of material, a lot of focus on supply chain. And you're right. Leaving the year here in 2020, in Q4, we were profitable. That was a nice landmark or a milestone for the start-up business being profitable in Q4. But throughout 2021, yes, we do expect to ramp up our gross margins to somewhere in the mid-30% range. So that's relative what we do, almost 40%, I guess, high 30s here, gross margin for 2020. So close to the company average by the end of 2020 is the plan. And then obviously, we're going to be ramping up our operating expenses to really go fast after this market. So expecting EBITDA margins to grow throughout the year as well, along with gross margins, maybe hitting double digits there by the end of the year for EBITDA margins. — CFO York, Q4 2020. Today, clean energy, just thinking storage, that is a profitable business today. We haven't quoted exactly what margin profile is. It's profitable today. But over time, over the next call it, few years, that will also grow into that mid- to high teens EBITDA margins as well. So we've got a road map and a path to get there. — CFO York, Q3 2021"

""Investors in PFE have been battered twice in the last 2 weeks - the first came with danuglipron's failure (oral GLP1),the second with the new guidance. No doubt there was an element of capitulation... In other words, despite a year of major underperformance, it's hard to say PFE's a "buy." Some credibility has been lost, and the near-term catalyst path is not a strong one." — Wolfe, December 14, 2023; "Given the high number of questions we have received on EPS and margin dynamics and the implications for 2025 results, we do not see today's update as a clearing event. Today's update essentially should provide a floor on COVID estimates and EPS, in our view. However, there remains a significant amount of uncertainty on what is driving 2024 margins & EPS so low (i.e. whether this is due to depressed COVID guidance or there is an issue with the core business margins, or a mix of both). And based on our conversations, we expect that investors will have a hard time stepping into the story until they gain further clarity." — JP Morgan, December 13, 2023; "But we don't have much conviction in the outlook, making it tough to pound the table even from these levels... Level Of Confidence In Management - Our confidence is not the highest for several reasons. PFE provided guidance on many parameters but in retrospect much of it is proving to have been too optimistic, is no longer supported, and resulted in two reductions in guidance in 2023. We were not fans of the Seagen acquisition from the start, given that each of the key assets has associated questions, making the outlook less than clear, particularly given the price paid." — TD Cowen, January 4, 2024"

""Investors in PFE have been battered twice in the last 2 weeks - the first came with danuglipron's failure (oral GLP1),the second with the new guidance. No doubt there was an element of capitulation... In other words, despite a year of major underperformance, it's hard to say PFE's a "buy." Some credibility has been lost, and the near-term catalyst path is not a strong one." — Wolfe, December 14, 2023; "Given the high number of questions we have received on EPS and margin dynamics and the implications for 2025 results, we do not see today's update as a clearing event. Today's update essentially should provide a floor on COVID estimates and EPS, in our view. However, there remains a significant amount of uncertainty on what is driving 2024 margins & EPS so low (i.e. whether this is due to depressed COVID guidance or there is an issue with the core business margins, or a mix of both). And based on our conversations, we expect that investors will have a hard time stepping into the story until they gain further clarity." — JP Morgan, December 13, 2023; "But we don't have much conviction in the outlook, making it tough to pound the table even from these levels... Level Of Confidence In Management - Our confidence is not the highest for several reasons. PFE provided guidance on many parameters but in retrospect much of it is proving to have been too optimistic, is no longer supported, and resulted in two reductions in guidance in 2023. We were not fans of the Seagen acquisition from the start, given that each of the key assets has associated questions, making the outlook less than clear, particularly given the price paid." — TD Cowen, January 4, 2024"

"Quite frankly, I think [regaining the high ground] is going to require evolution. We’ve been concerned about Southwest for some time, that it has mostly, not entirely, but mostly sat out the industry’s evolution... They have a product and price points that skew more toward discount airlines but a cost structure overall that skews a bit more toward the Big 3. It’s a bit of an identity crisis. — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023; Everything [they're] doing is incremental. [They] need to make radical changes. — Wolfe Research Weekly Webcast, October 2023; ...What might you consider strategically or put on the table that hasn't been on the table before? So if we think about things like seat assignments, basic economy, bags fly free, historically, those have been sacrosanct... If you have lagging margins, it may require a harder look. — Evercore Analyst on Q3 2023 Earnings Call, October 2023; There is a lot of debate about the airline's lack of a premium product vs. peers and ancillary revenue opportunities beyond boarding... The drum beat on closing the margin gap with the network airlines will continue to beat louder... — Cowen, January 2024; Time to pull the RASM lever?... The main – and perhaps only – lever they have now to overcome cost inflation is to boost RASM... LUV still remains at a relative disadvantage to all their major competitors in the pursuit of premiumization. — Morgan Stanley, January 2024; We have long made the case that the Company's inability to monetize its cabin and participate in various high-margin revenue streams was a drag on relative margin performance. — Deutsche Bank, April 2024"

"Quite frankly, I think [regaining the high ground] is going to require evolution. We’ve been concerned about Southwest for some time, that it has mostly, not entirely, but mostly sat out the industry’s evolution... They have a product and price points that skew more toward discount airlines but a cost structure overall that skews a bit more toward the Big 3. It’s a bit of an identity crisis. — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023; Everything [they’re] doing is incremental. [They] need to make radical changes. — Wolfe Research Weekly Webcast, October 2023; ...What might you consider strategically or put on the table that hasn’t been on the table before? So if we think about things like seat assignments, basic economy, bags fly free, historically, those have been sacrosanct... If you have lagging margins, it may require a harder look. — Evercore Analyst on Q3 2023 Earnings Call, October 2023; There is a lot of debate about the airline’s lack of a premium product vs. peers and ancillary revenue opportunities beyond boarding... The drum beat on closing the margin gap with the network airlines will continue to beat louder... — Cowen, January 2024; Time to pull the RASM lever?... The main – and perhaps only – lever they have now to overcome cost inflation is to boost RASM... LUV still remains at a relative disadvantage to all their major competitors in the pursuit of premiumization. — Morgan Stanley, January 2024; We have long made the case that the Company’s inability to monetize its cabin and participate in various high-margin revenue streams was a drag on relative margin performance. — Deutsche Bank, April 2024"

"Quite frankly, I think [regaining the high ground] is going to require evolution. We’ve been concerned about Southwest for some time, that it has mostly, not entirely, but mostly sat out the industry’s evolution... They have a product and price points that skew more toward discount airlines but a cost structure overall that skews a bit more toward the Big 3. It’s a bit of an identity crisis. — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023; Everything [they’re] doing is incremental. [They] need to make radical changes. — Wolfe Research Weekly Webcast, October 2023; ...What might you consider strategically or put on the table that hasn't been on the table before? So if we think about things like seat assignments, basic economy, bags fly free, historically, those have been sacrosanct... If you have lagging margins, it may require a harder look. — Evercore Analyst on Q3 2023 Earnings Call, October 2023; There is a lot of debate about the airline’s lack of a premium product vs. peers and ancillary revenue opportunities beyond boarding... The drum beat on closing the margin gap with the network airlines will continue to beat louder... — Cowen, January 2024; Time to pull the RASM lever?... The main – and perhaps only – lever they have now to overcome cost inflation is to boost RASM... LUV still remains at a relative disadvantage to all their major competitors in the pursuit of premiumization. — Morgan Stanley, January 2024; We have long made the case that the Company’s inability to monetize its cabin and participate in various high-margin revenue streams was a drag on relative margin performance. — Deutsche Bank, April 2024"

"Quite frankly, I think [regaining the high ground] is going to require evolution. We’ve been concerned about Southwest for some time, that it has mostly, not entirely, but mostly sat out the industry’s evolution... They have a product and price points that skew more toward discount airlines but a cost structure overall that skews a bit more toward the Big 3. It’s a bit of an identity crisis. — J.P. Morgan Webcast, May 2023; Everything [they’re] doing is incremental. [They] need to make radical changes. — Wolfe Research Weekly Webcast, October 2023; ...What might you consider strategically or put on the table that hasn't been on the table before? So if we think about things like seat assignments, basic economy, bags fly free, historically, those have been sacrosanct... If you have lagging margins, it may require a harder look. — Evercore Analyst on Q3 2023 Earnings Call, October 2023; There is a lot of debate about the airline's lack of a premium product vs. peers and ancillary revenue opportunities beyond boarding... The drum beat on closing the margin gap with the network airlines will continue to beat louder... — Cowen, January 2024; Time to pull the RASM lever?... The main – and perhaps only – lever they have now to overcome cost inflation is to boost RASM... LUV still remains at a relative disadvantage to all their major competitors in the pursuit of premiumization. — Morgan Stanley, January 2024; We have long made the case that the Company's inability to monetize its cabin and participate in various high-margin revenue streams was a drag on relative margin performance. — Deutsche Bank, April 2024"

"“...[Huntsman] trades at a relatively discounted valuation vs. peers as shares have lagged the group YTD. While we see these characteristics as favorable, in the context of HUN’s margins and FCF generation that we view as low relative to peers, we see this underperformance as fair...” — Wolfe Research, June 2021; “Huntsman is unlikely to trade at hybrid/diversified chemical multiples. We attribute this primarily to differences in margins and thus the market's perception of the degree of specialization of the company's products. From a segment or portfolio mix perspective it is not self evident that Huntsman meaningfully differs from diversified chemical peers Celanese or Eastman...Not withstanding our view that Huntsman has meaningfully improved its earnings stability and margin structure over the last few years, the company's margin remains well below that of hybrid/diversified peers such as Celanese and Eastman...” — Morgan Stanley, September 2020; “We feel part of the issue is that HUN’s cost structure has not changed as dynamically as its revenue...the elevated cost structure is dampening margins and impeding free cash flow conversion.” — BofA Securities, June 2020; “On cash conversion, we remain skeptical. Free cash flow conversion from Adj. EBITDA for Huntsman has historically lagged, as sizeable restructuring efforts and capital investments have hindered cash flow...We believe the market needs to see a longer track record of solid cash generation before fully underwriting a structural change in the company's cash flow profile...” — Barclays, October 2018"

""High marks for management. CEO Mark Donegan has a manufacturing background and graduated from the GE manufacturing management program in 1979, two years prior to Jack Welch becoming CEO. His chief success prior to taking the reins at [PCC] was at the helm of Wyman-Gordon, a [PCC] subsidiary where he led the business to historically high operating margins and growth. We think the most notable aspect of Mark Donegan’s career was his ability to manage a manufacturing concern profitably through the aerospace decline in the 1990’s." — Goldman Sachs, October 10, 2007; "From there, we want to take that baseline cost structure and we want to go back into the market where we want to drive for market share. We'll also take and add to that the ability we have on vertical integration... So market share is key and then we take that and drive that back across the assets that we created more capacity... We're not looking for just sales growth. We're looking for key assets that give us an expanding portfolio, attack our costs, long-term market share gain and growth." — Mark Donegan, December 3, 2014; "[PCC] generally leverages superb execution for market share gains through pricing strategies and long-term contracts. We believe [PCC] is one of the best operators in our space, as operating margins are generally above peer companies." — Bank of America, June 4, 2014"

""While Box was once one of the fastest-growing companies in software (70% growth at $225M+ in ARR at IPO), growth has dramatically decelerated, even prior to COVID. Growth did improve in the most recent quarter (with some COVID headwinds fading), but we do not believe Box will be able to sustain double-digit growth and find its FY24 12%-16% revenue growth target difficult to underwrite... Part of the reason we struggle to underwrite Box's story of accelerating growth and expanding margins is the fact that Box has discussed initiatives to accelerate growth in the past, but not delivered on it, and has had several different target models, consistently needing to walk them back... Based on our due diligence, we do believe that Box has competitively differentiated technology for content management at the enterprise end of the market and like the company's vision but take the view that a mixture of competitive pressures (namely OneDrive) and an underperforming GTM motion are the primary contributors to the company's underwhelming execution. Additionally, considering the nature of Box's solutions, if the rise of remote work and digital transformation trends haven't yet translated into an improved environment for the company we are not sure what Box needs to see to start executing." — RBC Capital Markets, July 2021"

"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"

""So as we look at that $2 billion run rate, I don't see any pie in the sky, we have got to go out and double margins in any one product, or have some ridiculous, unrealistic price increase or anything. These are all projects that have been announced...And it is just a question of executing on those...So I feel, today, even more confident in that number than I was when -- in March, when we gave that number to our investors." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "We've spent a lot of time with the investment community talking about a bridge, how we get from where we are to that $2 billion. I think if you dig into those numbers, you'll see that it's certainly achievable in the next 2 to 3 years." — John Heskett, VP – Treasury & Planning; "Our LTM is about $1.4 billion. We have an objective to go to $2 billion of EBITDA. Many of our businesses are sort of at that level...But really, on track we think near term to get to that $2 billion of EBITDA." — Kimo Esplin, CFO; "I would say that we should quite soundly beat the projections that we gave for the $2 billion. Again, we still have a great deal of confidence in the $2 billion number...I think that when we look at the overall composite, we still feel very confident about that." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO"

""We believe the management team at ADP has done an admirable job in proactively transforming ADP from a legacy payroll processor to a top HCM provider without sacrificing short-term results." — J.P. Morgan Research, August 16, 2017*; "Under an optimistic assumption, Ackman’s plan would take at least three years of depressed margins, but probably several more. We doubt management or its investors, including Pershing Square (despite claiming the opposite), would have the stomach for this... if Pershing Square is only looking at ADP through a spreadsheet, this plan makes perfect sense. However, companies don't exist on spreadsheets, and even the best laid plans often can't overcome an unhappy workforce worried about losing their jobs." — Morningstar Research, August 17, 2017*; "We do believe there are structural differences between ADP and PAYX margins, stemming from ADP's large presence in the national accounts and mid-market payroll services industry." — Evercore Research, August 17, 2017*; "ADP's Corporate Governance is a model for other companies... We doubt that many long-term shareholders would be anxious for a management change following the last six years of outperformance by ADP." — Baird Research, August 18, 2017*"

""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."

""First more than 90% of HomeTeam's business is Pest Control... When we acquired HomeTeam their margins were 7% on a trailing 12 month basis. But we believe that we can double those margins in the next four years." — Rollins On HomeTeam Acquisition, July 23, 2008. "The HomeTeam acquisition was a meaningful acquisition. So we've bought some nice platforms through the years, and we'll continue to buy good platforms." — CFO Krause, Baird Conference, Nov 9, 2022. "There are multiple benefits to tying Fox closely with HomeTeam, who have also been utilizing door-to-door campaigns to activate Taexx customers in their predominantly residential business for over 20 years." — CEO Gahlhoff, Q1 2023, April 27, 2023. "And when we look at the Fox pest control, it's a door-to-door business, the thing that we get excited about when we think about this business is teaming Fox with HomeTeam. HomeTeam is our business where we've got tubes and walls and there are legacy tubes that unfortunately, customers aren't using because they moved away from the home that they originally built and the new owner doesn't even realize that these tubes are in the house..." — Rollins on HomeTeam, William Blair Conf, Jun 8, 2023."

"As Steve said at Investor Day, we introduced a new transaction model for Flex, which gives Autodesk a more direct relationship with its customers and more closely integrates with its channel partners. We began testing the new transaction model across our product suite in Australia a couple of weeks ago. Assuming the launch proceeds as expected, in fiscal '25 and '26, we intend to transition our indirect business to the new transaction model in all our major markets globally. In the new transaction model, partners provide a quote to customers but the actual transaction happens directly between Autodesk and the customer... In the near term, the new transaction model results in a shift from contra revenue to operating costs that provide a tailwind to revenue growth, while being broadly neutral to operating profit and free cash flow dollars, and mechanically result in percent operating margins taking a step or 2 backwards. Over the long term, optimization enabled by this transition will provide a tailwind to revenue, operating income and free cash flow dollars, even after the cost of setting up our building platform. — Andrew Anagnost, CEO, November 21, 2023"

"“On valuation, despite an earnings profile (25% commodity / 75% specialty) in-line with differentiated peers Celanese (8.3x '22E EBITDA) and Eastman (9.2x '22E EBITDA), Huntsman (6.1x '22E EBITDA) continues to trade more like a commodity chemical company (Lyondell: 5.4x '22E EBITDA)” — Deutsche Bank, February 2022; “We view multiple expansion to more closely in line with diversified chemical peers Celanese (CE) and Eastman (EMN) as still more reflective of a blue sky scenario. Although both of those companies have similar mix of commodity/specialty businesses, they trade at higher multiples (currently ~9x EV/EBITDA NTM) as a result of their higher margin structures (mid to low 20s EBITDA margins vs. Huntsman's mid-teens levels).” — Morgan Stanley, November 2021; “HUN's Nov. 9 investor day will be first deep-dive since May 2018. Since then HUN divested the bulk of its commodity chems (~8x EV/EBITDA) & consumer adhesives (~15x) exposure & acquired bolt-on specialty polyurethanes & epoxies (~8x post synergies)... Specialties vs. basics mix is most often compared to EMN & CE (i.e. integrated acetyls v integrated MDI at HUN).” — UBS, August 2021"

"“On valuation, despite an earnings profile (25% commodity / 75% specialty) in-line with differentiated peers Celanese (8.3x '22E EBITDA) and Eastman (9.2x '22E EBITDA), Huntsman (6.1x '22E EBITDA) continues to trade more like a commodity chemical company (Lyondell: 5.4x '22E EBITDA)” — Deutsche Bank, February 2022; “We view multiple expansion to more closely in line with diversified chemical peers Celanese (CE) and Eastman (EMN) as still more reflective of a blue sky scenario. Although both of those companies have similar mix of commodity/specialty businesses, they trade at higher multiples (currently ~9x EV/EBITDA NTM) as a result of their higher margin structures (mid to low 20s EBITDA margins vs. Huntsman's mid-teens levels).” — Morgan Stanley, November 2021; “HUN's Nov. 9 investor day will be first deep-dive since May 2018. Since then HUN divested the bulk of its commodity chems (~8x EV/EBITDA) & consumer adhesives (~15x) exposure & acquired bolt-on specialty polyurethanes & epoxies (~8x post synergies)... Specialties vs. basics mix is most often compared to EMN & CE (i.e. integrated acetyls v integrated MDI at HUN).” — UBS, August 2021"

""...we announced the acquisition of Ciba's textile effects business. This was an acquisition of roughly $255 million with an $88 million LTM EBITDA. It is our objective over the course of the next two years to invest about $100 million into that textile effects business, and we believe we can get that EBITDA up to about 15%, 16% of sales; increase that EBITDA from its present rate of about $90 million run rate, upwards of about $150 million run rate." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, September 2006; "We are doing the very same thing in textile effects where over the next two years, we're going to spend $150 million and take an EBITDA that is roughly $80 million and we're going to take it to $150 million of EBITDA." — Kimo Esplin, CFO, March 2007; "...our textile effects business continues to make good progress on the restructuring program that we kicked off this last year. Our goal is to capture $75 million in cost savings and drive EBITDA margins to the mid-teens. In fact SG&A and R&D costs in the textile effects declined by almost $9 million or 17% as compared to second quarter levels." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO, July 2007"

""And were those things that were not addressed as you were inside ADP, or are these things that are incrementally directed towards how you are going to grow the business? In other words, did ADP kind of take a step back and say you are growing at the average rate, at corporate average margins and we are happy with that and focus on other areas? How did they view the business when it was tucked inside that company?" — Brian Bissett, Morgan Stanley. "I've been with ADP a long time. ADP does a real good job of trying to look at ways to maximize margins, but you do it on a cadence that perhaps isn't at a pace that we are going to try to accelerate. And because we are independent we can do some things if we have to restructure and the like. Perhaps that wasn't top of the list under the ADP umbrella, but it might be on ours. And so we're going to take advantage of, if you will, a fresh look at all areas and I think that's healthy for the business. Under ADP, good kinds, good direction, but a cadence that perhaps wasn't as accelerated as what we're going to try to do for this business." — Steven Anenen, CDK Global, Former CEO"

""GCP will focus largely on the non-residential construction market, with a smaller business in packaging materials as ballast. Longer-term, GCP should be able to lean on its market leading position and new product pipeline to out-pace end market growth, support margins, and grow EPS at an estimated 10% CAGR through the end of the decade." — Jefferies, February 2016; "We view this US non-residential construction exposure (particularly exposure to cement and concrete demand) as a positive, since cement volumes are still 25% below levels 10 years ago and 3% below the 20-year average prior to the 2008/09 recession." — Goldman Sachs, February 2016; "Despite some indications that non-residential construction spending growth in the U.S. could be entering a mature phase of the cycle, there are some spots of steady growth in significant markets for GCP, such as the multifamily market and infrastructure spending with the passage of the Federal Aid Highway Program. These markets may help to boost overall growth above rates for total construction, in our opinion." — KeyBanc Capital Markets, May 2016"

""Strategically, the combination of PEP's SnackCo and MDLZ would create a global snack giant with leading market share positions across several sub-snack categories, with limited portfolio overlap." — Judy Hong, Goldman Sachs 3.25.13; "Assuming ~$3+ billion in 2016 synergies, a 25% deal premium... we determine that a PEP acquisition of MDLZ could be accretive by ~15%-20% in the first full year." — Alexia Howard, Ali Dibadj, Steve Powers, Bernstein 4.22.13; "The potential for revenue synergies could reach ~$3 billion, based on the benchmark set by Mondelez / Cadbury." — Kevin Grundy, Dara Mohsenian and Matthew Grainger, Morgan Stanley 3.25.13; "The cost synergy opportunity is real. In our work published a few weeks ago, we embedded 9% of Mondelez revenues as synergies (or $3.4B)." — Bill Pecoriello, Consumer Edge 3.17.13; "A Merger Could Yield Significant Cost Savings: ...MDLZ's overall margins are well below those of its scaled global Food peers... leaving significant runway for cost savings, in our view." — Andrew Lazar, Barclays 3.22.13"

"“They absolutely would take it because it represents - even if it's a wash financially, it gets your numbers up, particularly if you're not already a high-volume center. You get your numbers up. You will, in the eyes of your institution and of payors, take on enhanced status, at least for being viewed as a higher volume center and potentially can enhance your margins accordingly. In a way, this is kind of like a loss leader where you've got to do a bunch of these perfusion-supported cases so that you can put yourself in a position to compete for contracts so that you can get even more of the conventional risk cases that don't require perfusion. In a way, it's kind of like one way of getting the good stuff, so to speak, to take on larger numbers aided and abetted and improved by perfusion It's a really interesting calculus that's being practiced by these kinds of centers that want to get bigger.” — Transplant hepatologist in a leadership role at Harvard/Massachusetts General Hospital; key role in oversight of the liver transplant program"

""Our LTM is about $1.4 billion. We have an objective to go to $2 billion of EBITDA. Many of our businesses are sort of at that level...But really, on track we think near term to get to that $2 billion of EBITDA." — Kimo Esplin, CFO; "I would say that we should quite soundly beat the projections that we gave for the $2 billion. Again, we still have a great deal of confidence in the $2 billion number...I think that when we look at the overall composite, we still feel very confident about that." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "About a year ago, at our Investor Day, we introduced to the market our near-term EBITDA target of $2 billion. We believed that we could achieve this number in the next two to three years...we continue to target a $2 billion run rate in 2017." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "If we look at our business without our existing Ti02 division, we would be looking at 2016 as a record year for...EBITDA margins, a materially different and stronger company than we what we have today." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO"

""And if we were a business today that we're separated from our TiO2, we would be going into 2016 saying...2016 will be a record EBITDA margin year in the history of this company." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "...as much as this is a business that when you start looking at the core performance, if you look at Huntsman without TiO2, we would be going into 2016 here...with some of the highest margins we've ever had in our history and with better than GDP growth." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "So I'll end my remarks on where I started with wanting this slide to be emblazoned in your mind. Again, as I look at the 4 steps that I think get this company another $20 to $30 a share, I think that these are all eminently doable." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO; "We remain very confident in delivering on the 2020 plans that we shared with you then. We are committed to the significant value creation upside of more than $27 per share by the end of 2020." — Peter Huntsman, Chairman, President & CEO"

""It takes five years to six years for a first program in a vertical to steady state, to get to that sort of natural peak of annual enrollment. It takes four-ish years for those programs to breakeven. But as they steady state, it is our expectation that an average 2U program will generate $16 million in top line revenue and generate mid-30s adjusted EBITDA margins." — 2017 Investor Day - 10/05/17; "So for our first program, our cumulative net negative cash investment is typically in the range of $10 million before we get to adjusted EBITDA and cash flow breakeven. . .launching a second, third or fourth program in the vertical however, our cumulative net negative cash investment usually falls by about half, more in the range of $5 million. . . the roughly $5 million to $10 million in cumulative net negative cash flow we refer to, is not an upfront investment with additional negative cash flows expected. It is the total cash investment we expect to make to a program breakeven." — Oppenheimer Conference 8/10/15"

""The Cintas legacy gross margins continue to expand and the G&K gross margins will too as we realize the acquisition synergies." — Cintas CFO, Q1 2018 Earnings Call, Sept 26, 2017; "While the assimilation of the G&K business continues at a great pace -- Mike mentioned 95% of duplicate operations have been closed, more work remains. The G&K gross margins will improve to Cintas legacy levels as we further integrate this business and we increasingly realize more of the synergies. We are on track." — Cintas Treasurer, Q3 2018 Earnings Call, March 22, 2018; "Really, nice job. At this point, given the gross margins, is it fair to say -- and I know we're not just [interviewing] G&K, but is G&K up to the corporate average at this point? Or would you expect that to get continue to kind of narrow relative to where Cintas is relative to GK?" — Analyst Kevin Damien McVeigh, Q1 2020 Earnings Call, Sept 24, 2019; "Well, as you referred to (gross margins), it's really hard to say." — CFO Response, Q1 2020 Earnings Call."

"During 2017, sales and operating profit performance for Garden Fresh Gourmet... were well below expectations, and we lowered our outlook for the second half of 2017 due to customer losses and failure to meet product distribution goals. Based upon the business performance in 2017, our reduced near-term outlook, and reduced expectations for sales, operating margins and discounted cash flows, we performed an interim impairment assessment in the second quarter, which resulted in a $64 million impairment charge. — Campbell Soup (FY18 10-K); In 2018, sales and operating performance were well below expectations due in part to competitive pressure and reduced margins. In the fourth quarter of 2018, as part of a strategic review initiated by a new leadership team and based on recent performance, we lowered our long-term outlook for future sales. In the fourth quarter of 2018, as part of our annual review of intangible assets, we recognized an impairment charge of $54 million. — Campbell Soup (FY18 10-K)"

""[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"

""As Patrick mentioned in his comments, and as Franz (VP of Emerging Markets) is going to speak about shortly, emerging markets is still a key growth focus for us. We're in a strong position now to accelerate our product development capability in the region to develop more products and solutions locally that are more aligned with the needs of customers in those markets." — CFO Rowland, Analyst Day Sept 2021; "They invested heavily and early in China, India and the MidEast. We look like a local competitor with local nationals running them. The challenge there in China and India (less so in the MidEast) – there's a market segment that wants premium products and willing to pay a premium price. That's 20% of the market. The rest are price sensitive, looking for the cheapest price. That drives a market dynamic that's different from the rest of the geographies. Places like India have dilutive margins. Growth potential is there, but margin potential is dilutive." — Former Xylem Executive Response"

""[W]e believe BWLD company-owned stores could improve margins substantially, by up to 500 [basis points] based on our analysis, by adopting labor practices currently deployed by [franchisees]" — Jim Sanderson, Arthur Wood, 3/28/17; "Our advisor believes there is an opportunity to bring lower performers more in line with the rest of the system, with store-level labor perhaps the largest opportunity. The example of Guest Experience Captains was cited...In his experience, BWLD franchisees are as or more qualified to run a large number of restaurants than corporate personnel" — Nick Setyan, Wedbush, 2/7/17; "[Margin opportunities] exist across labor, operating expenses, and COGS...Diversified Restaurant Holdings, Buffalo Wild Wing's largest franchisee, highlights opportunity for greater margin efficiency. While there are notable differences, including geographic and overall exposure, SAUC has exhibited favorable food & labor margins relative to BWLD" — Dennis Geiger, UBS, 1/5/17"

""We see Starboard stake as a positive – We see the news as a positive as the involvement of an activist further validates the opportunity for value creation at Autodesk." — Citi, June 2024. "We believe Autodesk is a good business that has the potential for multiple expansion due to improved execution... most tend to agree that Autodesk is a great company, but one that needs to improve its execution, investor messaging and margins." — RBC Capital, June 2024. "ADSK has close to a monopolistic market position in AEC software and believe an activist can have ADSK increase its focus on efficiency as it undergoes its agency model transition." — Wolfe Research, June 2024. "The company’s billing system transition, transaction model change and recent financial audit all add complexity and uncertainty. Starboard’s involvement may provide an opportunity for investors to gain greater confidence and clarity and for management to engage with investors." — BofA Securities, June 2024."

""So if you go anywhere in the world and you order McDonald hamburger is gonna taste like a McDonald hamburger, right? And the reason behind that is they have an infrastructure and an ingredients and a process that they've really dialed in so they can get predictable results wherever they go... there's no secret that they have stumbled with new offices and, and that, that would be an ongoing concern is, you know, they're hiring people from bigger BPOs who have seen that and wanna put that into place. Um, but it's tricky." — Fmr Business Dev. Employee. "All the BPOs servicing Facebook, and I'm not sure but probably at least a dozen, are doing low margins just to have the name, to learn, and leverage that name in their sales efforts. It's not uncommon for BPOs to take a haircut or even a loss for the first year or two for a long-term relationship. Now with wages increasing, it throws a bomb in the middle of everyone's strategic plan." — Fmr Business Dev. Employee."

"“As we continue to consolidate and grow relative market share throughout our footprint, our business scales and margins expand.” — CEO Smith, Q2 2023; “Michael, it's interesting. We're in a relative market share business. So in the markets that we compete in, and we see this because SunTx invests really in the Sunbelt of the country. There is some -- continues to be a lot of growth. The demographic trends are driving that, number one; and number 2, the business trends are driving that. So in a relative market share business, what we're worried about is the growth in Raleigh-Durham, the growth in Huntsville, Alabama. And in each of these 70-plus distinct markets, we continue to see growth commercially, residentially, everything.” — Chairman Fleming, Q4 2023; “Finally, we completed 8 acquisitions in fiscal 2024 that expanded our geographic footprint into new growth markets and enhanced relative market share across our Sunbelt states.” — CEO Smith, Q4 2024"

"“One of the big benefits of Twist is the lower entry point if you’ve got a custom panel. You can get a custom panel from Twist for around $2,000. With the likes of Agilent, the minimum is something like $10,000 to $20,000... IDT, their minimum level of synthesis is like 1,000 times higher, and you will pay $10 per oligo, whereas, with Twist, you’re getting millions of oligos for $1,000. Each oligo costs way less.” — Major Twist customer, one of largest genomics centers in Europe; “Customization is sort of an inherent aspect of the DNA synthesis industry... To your question about why are they so unprofitable? DNA synthesis is extremely low margins, and the reason is there are so many competitors out there.” — Former Twist manager in a manufacturing role; “It’s like going to the supermarket and buying a pack of 1,000 eggs. Twist will sell you six eggs; Agilent will sell you 1000 eggs.” — Major Twist customer, one of largest genomics centers in Europe"

"“Longer-term margins, two of your competitors have a little bit of a different margin structure: Paychex, high 30s%, 40%; ADP, mid 20s%. Where do you guys think you shake out over the very long term?” — Justin Furby, William Blair. “We look at Paychex's business model and think that that's one that we can emulate as we grow over time. I don't know when you get to, what is it, 35%, 40%. But we can see us steadily expanding margins for a number of years. The goal is to try to see if we can keep growing at 20% as long as we can. If you're growing that fast, it's going to be hard to expand the operating margins by a lot more. But at some point, I think we can get up there.” — Mitch Dauerman, Ultimate Software, CFO. “...If I go out to the kind of the ending, when growth really slows, I think you would look at a company like Paychex, and you could see kind of the margin in that 35% to 40% range.” — Mitch Dauerman, Ultimate Software, CFO."

"“The CEO came from Chevron Phillips Chemical. That is another thing I think they should look at. Take Mark Lashier, he's an expert there, and spin off that business.” — Third-party Shareholder Survey; “This last Q4 where Phillips came out and their refining margins were so weak, so weak. That is just fundamentally unacceptable... That is a CEO problem.” — Third-party Shareholder Survey; “We have had significant issues with Mark Lashier, who's the CEO. He is on the hot seat at this point due to these operational issues... There is an open question if he is the right man for the moment for me.” — Third-party Shareholder Survey; “Mark controls everything and that is not a good thing and as you can see that does not lead to strong corporate performance.” — Third-party Shareholder Survey; “He's doing what's right for his buddies on the Chevron Phillips side which is just not that shareholder friendly.” — Third-party Shareholder Survey"

""Yeah, RUN also has the advantage of being on newer technology which scales more cheaply in terms of incremental margins." — Gary C. Butler, President and CEO; "So the number around that the difference between sales last year and this year is about 20 percentage points of additional new business coming in using our web entry systems versus Teledata which is our phone-in system." — Carlos A. Rodriguez, President, Small Business; "Really it's kind of the best of both worlds because the client gets better accuracy because you have real time payroll with real time validation of data, so you have fewer errors, fewer reruns and it takes down our labor component to both, it take the payroll and service the payroll and we think we're going to get a longer life client out of that because the overall quality and number of reruns and all those kinds of issues should be significantly down over time." — Gary C. Butler, President and CEO"

"“I also want to reiterate what our fiscal '23 targets are; 16% to 18% revenue CAGR, $2.4 billion in free cash flow, roughly a 40% operating margin, and again a sum of revenue growth in free cash flow that stays between 55% and 65%. We are confident in these targets at this point, and I want to make sure that you understand that it is our goal to achieve these to the same degree that we achieved our FY '20 targets that we set over three years ago.” — Andrew Anagnost, CEO, 2020 Digital Investor Day; “We continue to manage our business using a Rule of Forty framework with a goal of reaching 45% or more over time. We are taking significant steps towards our goal this year and next. We think this balance between compounding revenue growth and strong free cash flow margins captured in the Rule of Forty framework is the hallmark of the most valuable companies in the world…” — Andrew Anagnost, CEO, Q1 FY2025 Earnings Call"

"“I also want to reiterate what our fiscal '23 targets are; 16% to 18% revenue CAGR, $2.4 billion in free cash flow, roughly a 40% operating margin, and again a sum of revenue growth in free cash flow that stays between 55% and 65%. We are confident in these targets at this point, and I want to make sure that you understand that it is our goal to achieve these to the same degree that we achieved our FY '20 targets that we set over three years ago.” — Andrew Anagnost, CEO, 2020 Digital Investor Day; “We continue to manage our business using a Rule of Forty framework with a goal of reaching 45% or more over time. We are taking significant steps towards our goal this year and next. We think this balance between compounding revenue growth and strong free cash flow margins captured in the Rule of Forty framework is the hallmark of the most valuable companies in the world…” — Andrew Anagnost, CEO, Q1 FY2025 Earnings Call"

""We are skeptical that TXN can achieve their revenue targets given its growth rate of mid-single digits. Given elevated capex and depreciation, we believe TI’s margins will remain under pressure through 2026 unless capex is cut." — Citi; "Texas Instruments (TXN): We wish we could all have a 15-year investment horizon...downgrading to Underperform" — AB; "We are initiating coverage of TXN with an Underweight (UW) rating and $150 price tgt. Our rating reflects a concern TXN can’t achieve rev tgts & related utilization; i.e., 300mm capacity expansion plans intended to reach $30B FY26 rev. 19% CAGR." — Wells Fargo; "We still believe investing in mature node capacity is the right strategic decision long-term. That said, with a 20% CAGR off 2024 Street estimates needed to reach 2030's $45B capacity target, we think the magnitude of the development is difficult for investors to underwrite, even with subsidies." — Cowen"

""If we look at our business without our existing TiO2 division, we would be looking at 2016 as a record year for...EBITDA margins, a materially different and stronger company than we what we have today. Obviously, the conclusion of this separation is a very high priority for this company." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "And if we were a business today that we're separated from our TiO2, we would be going into 2016 saying...2016 will be a record EBITDA margin year in the history of this company." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO; "I've said this many times before, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with the TiO2 industry as much as this is a business that when you start looking at the core performance, if you look at Huntsman without TiO2, we would be going into 2016 here...with some of the highest margins we've ever had in our history and with better than GDP growth." — Peter Huntsman, President & CEO"

""Part of the reason we struggle to underwrite Box’s story of accelerating growth and expanding margins is the fact that Box has discussed initiatives to accelerate growth in the past, but not delivered on it, and has had several different target models, consistently needing to walk them back" — RBC Capital Markets, July 2021; "Box managed modest growth acceleration for the quarter, existing only if we consider the company’s results on a sequential basis. In simpler terms, Box’s newly reported 10% growth in the first quarter of its fiscal 2022 was better than the 8% growth it earned during the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2021, but worse than the 13% growth it managed in its year-ago Q1. With Box, however, instead of judging it by normal rules, we’re hunting in its numbers each quarter for signs of promised acceleration. By that standard, Box met its own goals" — TechCrunch, May 2021"

""It was a maze. We were doing a disservice selling a 1,200 employee client Vantage when we would have done a better job selling Workforce Now... I'm not sure that the customer is at the center of the decision." — Former SVP Product Strategy; "Why are margins so low? Overhead. So many layers, so many inefficiencies with regards to the same people doing the same thing... each product or team has its own duplicative organization. There are still silo's." — Former Sr. Director of Business Transformation; "There were always turf wars at the seams. Imagine a 49 employee client moved into Majors and is now being sold Workforce Now. Who owns that client? Is this an SBS or a Majors upsell opportunity? Consider it – there’s separate sales leaders. Everything is segmented by size. The revenue is ‘owned’ by regional GMs with their own P&L. It’s a mess." — Former DVP, Business Transformation"

""When I joined the business I think we had a 15% gross margin, but this just wasn't sustainable at that level of profit. And so the last round of label negotiations was about elevating the margins to a point where, I think, the business would self-sustain...So what was good for Spotify was good for the labels and that's why the margin increased. Now on a go-forward basis, is that going to happen again? No that's not going to happen again. It's not in their economic interest to allow it to happen again. So how is it that the margin improves? The only way the margin improves is, we provide them with some value-added services that don't exist today that makes their business more profitable as a consequence and we benefit as well for doing it right now." — Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy, February 26, 2019, Bloomberg Transcript, Morgan Stanley Media Conference"

"“Great. And maybe just kind of very high level here, during the road show you had kind of guided to 7% to 11.5% EBITDA margins and CarMax probably your closest competitor is around 7.8% last year... So, without opening a capital finance company you are running your own auctions, how do you kind of think about getting to the midpoint or the higher end of your long-term EBITDA guidance?” — Mike Levin, Deutsche Bank; “So I think it's a reasonable question to ask kind of what's the gap there, that gap part of that is made up by pricing differences... We built a pretty unique finance platform that allows us to while not taking credit risk monetize finance originations across the entire credit spectrum, not just to the top end of the credit spectrum, while passing that credit risk on to third parties.” — Ernie Garcia III – CEO, Carvana"

"“Substantial long-term operating leverage: Longer term, our hypothetical margin expansion analysis shows the potential for a significant ramp in pro forma operating margins from 12% currently to 30-40%, in theory, as revenues grow to scale and sales and marketing (S&M) costs normalize. We strongly believe that the SaaS business model can ultimately achieve a margin structure similar to that of traditional on-premise software businesses—a view that we believe is underappreciated by the Street.” — Nomura, Aug 2012; “Performing the same analysis for Ultimate Software Group, with its current renewal margins between 48% and 50% over the last four years, this would imply long-run, fully- scaled potential operating margins in the low-30% range (Ultimate’s non-GAAP operating margins today are ~20%).” — Goldman Sachs, July 2017"

""We have now finished our sale-leaseback program, which resulted in the completion of transactions on 37 restaurants, resulting in $83 million of gross proceeds at average cap rates under 6.7%, including cap rates in the range of 6.25% on our most recent transactions." — Ruby Tuesday July 24, 2013 earnings conference call. "The company's real estate could be worth another $800MM - $1B" — CL King research report. "We are upgrading BOBE...due to what we view as a cleaner story for investors with improving margins, good underlying sales momentum in its core businesses and nearly $900 mil. in real estate value" — Stephens Inc. research report. "In fiscal 2011, it cost approximately $2.3 million to build a new stand-alone Bob Evans restaurant, including the land." — Bob Evans 10-K for the fiscal year ended April 29, 2011."

""We're not aiming to make much money on agents' self-sourced sales, as few traditional brokers have ever earned a decent margin; our goal is to recruit agents who can close Redfin-sourced sales at a high rate. The margins on Redfin-sourced sales should remain well above those of other brokers. Even if Max agents' sales turn out to be largely self-sourced, lowering margins on a larger volume of sales in our pilot markets, the impact on Redfin's overall gross margin will be negligible. We won't extend Redfin Max to a large number of markets unless we become convinced that it will net more gross profits. For Max to succeed, a new cohort of motivated, high-caliber agents has to close only a few more sales each year than we normally would with the same set of site-sourced opportunities." — Redfin Q3'23 Earnings Call"

"“The retailers that we are dealing with are certainly focused on sales, but they are far more focused today on profitability and cash flow, which leads to capital allocation for new stores or remodeled stores upon renewal. What we faced in 2009 was, most retailers saying we are preserving our cash because we are unsure about our line [of credit]. And we are insecure about our ability to finance. Now that they have better cash margins and better cash on deposit, we are now hearing that they are allocating money for new open-to-buys. And I think David gave you a list in his comments of those stores that are looking at that. So I think it is going to be less correlated with sales and more correlated with profitability and cash flow generation.” — Rick Sokolov, COO of Simon Property Group, October 30, 2009"

"“Of our net sales, we believe that 73% of our business or our cost structure is highly variable. Our royalties that we pay distributors, about 36% of sales. Our product costs, 21%, and distributor facing spending, which is sort of sacrosanct. This is what Des mentioned earlier, and Michael. This is the last area that we want to touch as it relates to trying to leverage our margins. In fact, if anything, what we try to do is over-invest in this area because we do believe that complementing our royalty expense with very prudent incentives and promotion can actually drive incremental ROI on the spending. So, when we look at our essentially fixed overhead, and fixed is relative depending on what time horizon, we look at 12% of our cost structure being essentially fixed.” — Rich Goudis, CFO, Herbalife"

""We have the solutions the market is looking for. We have the IP. It’s just a matter of the execution to bring down admin to industry normal levels, not more, not better than the industry, but just the normal levels in the industry and also bringing cost of goods sold both in Pharmacy and MLR on the medical side to industry norms will yield enormous upside for us in the company." — CEO Barry Smith, 2019 Guidance Call; "In summary, while we’re not pleased with our results this year, I’m confident that our growth strategy is sound. After transforming our business and achieving strong top line growth over the past few years, we have significant earnings power in our current portfolio as we work to increase our margins to industry competitive levels." — CFO Jonathan Rubin, Q3 2018 Earnings Call"

""And then can you talk a little bit more about the profitability in your clean energy business and with PWRcell? ... And just how should we think of it more on like a 2 to 3-year basis as you continue to ramp?" — Roth Analyst. "Yes. Ross, it's York. So yes, making very good progress on gross margin optimization... we do expect to ramp up our gross margins to somewhere in the mid-30% range... maybe hitting double digits there by the end of the year for EBITDA margins." — CFO York, Q4 2020. "Today, clean energy, just thinking storage, that is a profitable business today. We haven't quoted exactly what margin profile is. It's profitable today. But over time, over the next call it, few years, that will also grow into that mid- to high teens EBITDA margins as well." — CFO York, Q3 2021."

"“No, I don't remember. $500 million—between $300 to 500 million and that basically translates to the POs that they had from Intel but the POs are at a significantly reduced price. They don't have a lot of margin on those tools, very low margins on those tools.” — Former KLA executive in a leadership role in their EUV mask inspection group. “I think that $300 to $500 million is a little high in my estimation. I'm sure they've invested some significant money in Lasertec, and they do have a significant say in the direction of Lasertec, and Lasertec views them as sort of their core customer or founding customer per se...they've also obviously ordered and prepaid for some stuff...” — Longtime semiconductor consultant recently working for Lasertec; close to KLA management"

"“I’ll be very candid with you, if I was the product lead on the hook for these kinds of [80%] margins, I would be very, very scared...this is just not a believable scenario even with the scale of a hyperscaler...this is definitely a very sort of utopian best-case scenario.” — Former Engineer at CoreWeave; “The illustration appears to indicate the revenue from the residual assets in year 5 and beyond will represent 75% of the revenue in years 1-4 of the original contract. We will reserve our language to simply indicate that is highly unlikely.” — D.A. Davidson Research, June 9, 205; “Wishful thinking. That’s how old data centers worked before AI chips.” — Former Principal Architect at Nvidia; “Totally bullshit.” — Former Senior Product Manager at Nebius"

""Then just the last question -- the Dealer margin is obviously doing terrific now that you've lapped the Kerridge. Can you give us a sense, as you look out over the next few years, what's sort of the margin potential of this business? Does it remain substantially above the levels you've been reporting in the last couple of quarters?" — Gary Bisbee, Lehman Brothers; "Yes. Again, the business model there is no different than Employer Services. Again, sans acquisitions or significant investments, we would expect the core Dealer business to improve its margins 0.5 point a year as a way to think about it. So there are clearly 2 or 3 more points of margin improvement available in the Dealer market over a planning horizon." — Gary Butler, ADP, Former CEO"

""Included in transaction revenues was the impact of a newly negotiated contract with our payments partner at Upserve and ShopKeep. This new contract did two things, provide us with better economics than the businesses who are achieving on their own and also brought us better control over the end customer relationships. As a result of this, we were able to realize an uplift in revenue of approximately $7 million in the quarter and greater gross margins as well. This is a great new story that reflective of how our scale has improved our negotiating power. But it's worthwhile noting that even without this, our revenue performance for the quarter handily beat our previous guidance of $68 million to $70 million." — CFO Nussey, Q4 and FY 2021 Conf Call"