"We expect shareholder activism to remain popular during 2023 as investors adapt to regulatory changes and managements navigate a macro backdrop characterized by heightened recession risk and flat equity market returns," Goldman's head of U.S. equity strategy David Kostin said in a note.
These firms have a market cap greater than $5 billion, at least one source of vulnerability, and have experienced at least 10 percentage points lower sales growth relative to the sector median during the trailing 12 months. Many of these companies have previously been targeted by activist campaigns. AT & T is one of the names that came up in Goldman's screen. In 2019, the telecom giant was targeted by Paul Singer's Elliott Management in one of its most ambitious investor campaigns.