Bear Cave stuff

The Bear Cave #91 New Activist Reports, Recent Resignations, and Tweets of the Week Edwin Dorsey Nov 14

Welcome to The Bear Cave — your weekly source of short-seller news. If you are new, you can join here. Please hit the heart button if you like today’s newsletter and reply with any feedback. New Activist Report

Culper Research published an update on Aemetis Inc (NASDAQ: AMTX — $659 million), a renewable energy and biochemicals company that is up ~850% over the last year. Culper Research alleged the company is misleading investors and regulators about the progress of various construction projects. Culper wrote,

“We find this repeated goalpost-shifting obliterates the credibility of Aemetis management. In Q3 2021, Aemetis produced negative gross margins, net losses of $17.6 million, and now holds just $6.4 million of cash. The Company’s [Sustainable Aviation Fuel] plans alone now call for capital expenditures of $367 million in 2022 and 2023, just to get off the ground. We don’t think they ever will.”

CFO resignations

CFO of StarTek Inc (NYSE: SRT — $196 million) resigned after eleven months “to pursue a specific opportunity rather than on account of any differences with the Company.” The company has had three different CFOs over the last five years and is audited by BDO India LLP.

CFO of Hostess Brands (NASDAQ: TWNK — $2.56 billion) resigned after a little over a year.

CFO of Axcella Health (NASDAQ: AXLA — $116 million) resigned after two years “for personal reasons and to pursue other interests.” The company has fallen ~80% since its 2019 IPO.

CFO of Prelude Therapeutics (NASDAQ: PRLD — $763 million) resigned after two and a half years “to pursue other opportunities.”

CFO of View Inc (NASDAQ: VIEW — $1.18 billion) resigned after less than three years on the job following an internal investigation that determined he “negligently failed to properly record the liabilities for warranty-related obligations and cost of revenue” and “intentionally failed to disclose certain information to the Board of Directors and the Company's independent registered public accounting firm.” Jehoshaphat Research previously criticized the company’s accounting, and the stock is now down roughly 50% from its March 2021 SPAC merger.

Ashley C. Glover resigned “effective immediately” as an audit committee board member of EngageSmart Inc (NYSE: ESMT — $4.53 billion) after less than two months on the board. The company went public in October.

Chief Accounting Officer of Coursera (NYSE: COUR — $4.95 billion) resigned after less than three months “to pursue a Chief Financial Officer opportunity.”

President of Lordstown Motors (NASDAQ: RIDE — $1.01 billion) resigned after one year.

Meghna R. Desai resigned as an audit committee board member of Sculptor Capital Management Inc (NYSE: SCU — $1.27 billion) after less than five months “due to other professional obligations.” Sculptor has had four different CFOs over the last five years.

Chief Medical Officer of Rubius Therapeutics (NASDAQ: RUBY — $1.26 billion) resigned after less than two years “to pursue another opportunity.”

Chief Medical Officer of Finch Therapeutics (NASDAQ: FNCH — $722 million) resigned after a little over two years “in order to return to Canada to attend to a family health matter.”

CEO of Icahn Enterprises (NASDAQ: IEP — $15.9 billion) resigned after a little over six months “due to certain personal family issues that make it impossible for him to continue his permanent relocation in Florida.”

Data for this section is provided by InsiderScore.com

Liberty Media

Andrew Walker is a great fan of Liberty Media. It is their investor day coming up and he’s convinced they’ll announce something important. He seriously rates John Malone, “The Cable Cowboy.” He argues that with Liberty being involved in so many types of business, and geographies, the day will reveal something about how the world economy is getting on too.

Coal

Iron ore prices have crashed. China wants steel production to be flat relative to 2020 levels. The rest of the world is producing more. Met coal is at record levels, but met coal producers are cheap. Go figure. The Alpha Letter has looked at all this in its newsletter for today.

Commodities

Commodities have never really joined the inflation party. Gold perpetually disappoints, silver continues to be incredibly volatile. Oil has been strongish, but hasn’t really gone anywhere in a month. Nat gas has a mind of its own, but certainly doesn’t seem to want to end its negative correlation with oil prices.

It is hard to see commodity prices continue to be strong and at the same time see the dollar strengthening. The same goes for bitcoin, I think, but that thing defies any analysis that has ever allowed me to make sense of it previously.

Hot or Not?

The rising and falling of popularity with hedge funds. See Seeking Alpha

Rising Stars

1. $EQT — EQT
2. $HRC — Hill-Rom Holdings
3. $BILL — Bill.com
4. $FIVN — Five9
5. $TROW — T. Row Price
6. $DTM — DT Midstream
7. $MCFE — McAfee
8. $DDOG — DataDog
9. $MSFT — Microsoft
10. $AN — AutoNation

Falling Stars

1. $AMZN — Amazon
2. $LZ — LegalZoom
3. $GH — Guardant Health
4. $MTB — M&T Bank
5. $FB — Meta Platforms
6. $BLL — Ball Corp.
7. $TMUS — T-Mobile
8. $LMT — Lockheed Martin
9. $CSGP — CoStar Group