The Bear Cave #78

New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week

Aug 17

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New Activist Reports

Grizzly Research published on TuSimple Holdings (NASDAQ: TSP — $6.26 billion), a Chinese autonomous driving company. Grizzly Research alleged that the company’s founders “have a history of failures” and highlighted that many of the company’s preorders are spurious. Grizzly Research compared TuSimple to Nikola and drew parallels that both firms license key technology from other companies.

Western Edge published a Seeking Alpha article on Amyris (NASDAQ: AMRS — $4.12 billion), a synthetic biotech company up ~300% over the last year. Western Edge wrote,

“The next six months are fraught with downside catalysts for Amyris as the business has, in my opinion, been whittled down to being a glorified and unprofitable cosmetics company… They have burnt ~$245M in core FCF over the last 12 months when excluding their one-time licensing payments. This compares to their latest reported cash balance of $214M.”

White Diamond Research published on Lightwave Logic (OTC: LWLG — $720 million), a revenue-less photonics company that is up ~500% on retail enthusiasm.

Jehoshaphat Research provided an update on its AdaptHealth (NASDAQ: AHCO — $3.42 billion) short:

Jehoshaphat Research @JehoshaphatRsch

(1/7) We're updating our $AHCO short with new information that conclusively proves negative organic growth for all of 2021 so far. The opportunity to short AHCO at this level again is incredible: neg org growth confirmed, short interest low, stock back to pre-report levels.

Recent Resignations and Departures

Notable executive departures disclosed in the last week include:

CFO of Agree Realty (NYSE: ADC — $5.13 billion) resigned after about six months on the job. The company has had eight CFO transitions in the last ten years and is audited by Grant Thornton. Agree Realty’s new interim CFO is 29 years old.
CFO of Enstar Group (NASDAQ: ESGR — $4.68 billion) also resigned after about six months on the job. The prior CFO departed after only three years.
CFO of SailPointTechnologies Holdings (NYSE: SAIL — $4.11 billion) resigned after a little over two years. The company’s auditor is Grant Thornton.
COO of SeaWorld Entertainment (NYSE: SEAS — $4.19 billion) resigned after less than two months “for personal reasons effective immediately.” The company has had five different CEOs, three different CFOs, and three different Chairmen over the last five years.
Chief Underwriting Officer of Argo Group International (NYSE: ARGO — $1.95 billion) was terminated after a little over a year “as part of the Company's efforts to continue to streamline management and reduce expenses.”
A director of FIGS Inc (NYSE: FIGS — $6.65 billion) resigned after two months “effective immediately.” The company went public in May.
Two audit committee board members of Arco Platform (NASDAQ: ARCE — $1.53 billion) resigned after less than two years as part of “a renewal process initiated in the beginning of the year to promote new insights on the business environment.” The company has also had three different CFOs over the last two years.

Data for this section is provided by InsiderScore.com

What to Read

“Xi’s Dictatorship Threatens the Chinese State” (George Soros WSJ Op-Ed)

“In his quest for personal power, he’s rejected Deng Xiaoping’s economic reform path and turned the Communist Party into an assemblage of yes-men.”

“PureCycle Technologies: The Nikola of Recycling” (Funny Business Substack)

“PureCycle Technologies Fails to Address Short Seller Allegations; More Red Flags Surface”

“A Skeptical Stock Analyst Wins Big by Seeking Out Frauds” (NYT)

“The activist short-seller behind Hindenburg Research has become known for research that sends companies’ stock sinking. He says he’s not in it just to move share prices.”