Dropbox Inc. (DBX): Among Recent Activist Investor Campaigns
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ:DBX) stands against other recent activist investor campaigns.
Economic uncertainty and market volatility are some of the factors fueling activist investor campaigns in 2025. In the first quarter alone, there was a 17% jump in activist campaigns, affirming how high-profile activist investors are becoming agitated and increasingly pushing for strategic changes aimed at unlocking shareholder value.
'We are in a phase where activists continue to take advantage of all the uncertainties,' said Jim Rossman, global head of shareholder advisory at Barclays. 'In early 2025 we have seen more fights, more settlements and more board seats won by the activists than we did this time a year ago.'
The US remains the epicenter of shareholder activism, accounting for over half of the first quarter's campaigns. Japan comes second with 16 campaigns, accounting for a 45% increase compared to the same period last year. The fresh efforts this year follow a record number of activist shareholders targeting businesses around the world in 2024. Additionally, the campaigns are on the rise owing to the market instability caused by President Donald Trump's tariffs, widespread layoffs at U.S. government agencies, and recessionary fears.
READ ALSO: Billionaire Rob Citrone's Top 10 Stock Picks and Jeff Smith's Top 10 Activist Targets and Their Returns Compared to the S&P 500.
According to a Barclays report, many activist investors remain focused on pushing for board changes. It also emerged that activists increasingly have their way as part of the campaigns, having won 51 board seats, up 34% from the same quarter a year ago.
Secondly, activist investors are also agitating for strategic and operational changes, believing they could help unlock hidden value. Finally, 26% of the campaigns pushed for merger and acquisition activity, a significant drop from the historical average of 45%.
Demands for merger & acquisition actions, such as selling a firm or selling business units, are still largely ignored, appearing in only around 25% of campaigns. Since the worldwide deal volume reached a record high in 2021, M&A requests have decreased by around half.
Although fewer activist campaigns were submitted by sustainability-minded shareholder activists to business annual meetings this year, conflicts on issues like corporate diversity initiatives still exist. As of February 21, investors pressuring corporations on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues submitted 355 shareholder proposals, compared to 536 at the same time in 2024 and 542 at the same time in 2023.
The decline came amid growing concerns that big investors will not support the measures. Additionally, ESG-focused activist investors also remained wary that Republican regulators would not approve their resolutions to go to a vote. Additionally, the decline came as companies became wary of unnecessary public battles, opting to make changes to avoid unwanted proxy fights.
Activism is also becoming a popular strategy for newcomers, including freshly founded hedge funds that have never launched a campaign before. These funds are anxious to make a return in difficult times and are emboldened by the success of others.
According to the data, eleven so-called first-timers ran campaigns during the quarter. Looking ahead to the remainder of 2025, Barclays bankers anticipate that the majority of activity will continue to be concentrated on U.S. corporations and that more companies will have to respond to shareholder demands.
We sifted through financial media reports and news articles to identify 15 recent activist investor campaigns. We then examined some of the strategic changes that the activist investors are agitating and the impact they are likely to have in the long run. Finally, we ranked the activist campaigns in ascending order based on when they occurred.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ().
A close-up of a laptop displaying a popular content collaboration platform.Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ:DBX) is a technology company that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, file sharing, and client software services. Its solutions allow people to store, synchronize, and share files across devices. The company is under pressure from activist investor Half Moon, seeking to remove its dual-class share structure.
According to Half Moon, the dual-class share structure has given CEO and co-founder Drew Houston too much power in voting rights, making it difficult to push for changes likely to unlock value. In addition to share structure, the activist hedge fund has also taken issue with Dropbox's slowing revenue growth metric. Slow revenue growth comes from the company recording less than 1% growth in paying user count and guiding for a decline in paid users this year.
Amid the slowing growth, Dropbox Inc. (NASDAQ:DBX) has cut its workforce by 20% as it tries to trim its operational expenditure. The cut came as Dropbox faced a challenging consumer environment and inefficient operations.
Overall, DBX ranks 3rd on our list of recent activist investor campaigns. While we acknowledge the potential of DBX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than DBX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: and .
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at .
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Appeals court lets Trump administration keep collecting tariffs while challenges continue
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court agreed Tuesday to let the government keep collecting President Donald Trump's sweeping import taxes while challenges to his signature trade policy continue on appeal. The decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit extends a similar ruling it made after another federal court struck down the tariffs May 28, saying Trump had overstepped his authority. Noting that the challenges to Trump's tariffs raise "issues of exceptional importance,'' the appeals court said it would expedite the case and hear arguments July 31. The case involves 10% tariffs the president imposed on almost every country in April and bigger ones he imposed and then suspended on countries with which the United States runs trade deficits. It also involves tariffs Trump plastered on imports from China, Canada and Mexico to pressure them to do more to stop the illegal flow of immigrants and synthetic opioids across the U.S. border. In declaring the tariffs, Trump had invoked emergency powers under a 1977 law. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled he had exceeded his power. The tariffs upended global trade, paralyzed businesses and spooked financial markets. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Oil prices down, markets assess US-China trade talks outcome
By Katya Golubkova TOKYO (Reuters) -Oil prices fell in early trade on Wednesday as markets were assessing the outcome of U.S.-China trade talks, yet to be reviewed by President Donald Trump, with weak oil demand from China and OPEC+ production increases weighing on the market. Brent crude futures lost 24 cents, or 0.36%, to trade at $66.63 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 21 cents, or 0.32%, to $64.77 at 0119 GMT. U.S. and Chinese officials agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and resolve China's export restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Tuesday at the conclusion of two days of intense negotiations in London. Trump will be briefed on the outcome before approving it, Lutnick added. "In terms of what it means for crude oil, I think it removes some downside risks, particularly to the Chinese economy and steadies the ship for the U.S. economy - both of which should be supportive for crude oil demand and the price," said Tony Sycamore, a market analyst for IG. Oil import data from China earlier this week and ongoing production increases from OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies such as Russia, were adding to the downside. OPEC+ plans to increase oil production by 411,000 barrels per day for July as it looks to unwind production cuts for a fourth straight month. Meanwhile, China's customs data showed this week the country, the world's biggest oil importer, brought in 46.60 million tonnes of crude oil in May, down 3% from the previous month, with imports of oil products falling by 12.9%. Later on Wednesday, markets will be focusing on the weekly U.S. oil inventories report from the Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy. Analysts polled by Reuters expect U.S. crude oil stockpiles fell by 2 million barrels in the week to June 6, while distillate and gasoline inventories likely rose. Their estimates are for a bigger decline in crude stocks than figures from American Petroleum Institute showed. The API reported on Tuesday that crude stocks fell by 370,000 barrels last week, sources said on condition of anonymity. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Arista Networks (ANET) Stock Slides as Market Rises: Facts to Know Before You Trade
Arista Networks (ANET) ended the recent trading session at $93.70, demonstrating a -3.2% swing from the preceding day's closing price. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.55%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.25%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.63%. Heading into today, shares of the cloud networking company had gained 4.85% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 11.3% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.29% in that time. Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Arista Networks in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.65, signifying a 25% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $2.11 billion, up 24.67% from the prior-year quarter. In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $2.56 per share and a revenue of $8.31 billion, indicating changes of +12.78% and +18.72%, respectively, from the former year. Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Arista Networks. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the company's business and profitability. Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model. The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. As of now, Arista Networks holds a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy). Looking at its valuation, Arista Networks is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 37.83. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 29.13. One should further note that ANET currently holds a PEG ratio of 2.56. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Internet - Software industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.33. The Internet - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 54, putting it in the top 22% of all 250+ industries. The Zacks Industry Rank evaluates the power of our distinct industry groups by determining the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks forming the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1. To follow ANET in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Arista Networks, Inc. (ANET) : Free Stock Analysis Report This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research ( Zacks Investment Research Sign in to access your portfolio
