Research · Living data · Updated 2026-07-17
A living tracker of 13D-driven activist situations — who is pushing which company for change, and the filing that started it.
When an investor takes a big stake and signals intent to push for change, it's disclosed on a SEC Schedule 13D — and those filings move stocks. NextTrack tracks 1,189 activist campaigns, each promoted from a 13D filing, linking the activist, the target, the stake, and the filing that started it. The count refreshes daily from EDGAR on every rebuild.
| Metric | Live figure |
|---|---|
| NextTrack tracks | 1,189 activist campaigns |
| Last updated | 2026-07-17 |
The dividing line is intent. A passive investor crossing 5% files a Schedule 13G. An investor who intends to **influence** the company — board seats, a strategy change, a sale — must file a **Schedule 13D**, whose Item 4 spells out the purpose of the position. That 13D is the trigger NextTrack uses to promote a situation into an activist campaign, because it's the moment a stake becomes a plan.
Academic work (Brav, Jiang, Partnoy, Thomas) found target stocks rise on the order of 5–7% around a 13D filing. The filing draws attention from other investors and the media, and it forces management to respond. But not every campaign succeeds — the outcome depends on the activist's track record and the specific ask, which is why NextTrack links each campaign back to the filing so you can read the actual thesis rather than react to the headline.
Activist campaigns are derived from SEC Schedule 13D and 13D/A filings, which signal active rather than passive ownership intent, deduplicated by accession number and refreshed daily from EDGAR. The full tracker, by activist and by target, is in the app. For the broader institutional context these activists sit within, see [top 13F institutional ownership changes](/research/13f-institutional-ownership).
Activist dataset & methodology · Top 13F institutional ownership · 2026 mergers & M&A