Here are the 10 biggest activist money managers and some of their most impressive bets

Who: Blue Harbour Group, led by Clifton Robbins, calls itself a "friendly activist." That means they prefer to talk to management to bring about corporate changes, instead of using hostile tactics like proxy fights.

What: The firm's core investments include semiconductors distributor Avnet, farm equipment maker AGCO and clinical software developer Allscripts Healthcare Solutions. Its main fund grew 1.25% last month and is now up about 3% for the year, according to Institutional Investor.

AUM: $3.8 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Blue Harbour took 5.2% of Jack in the Box's shares back in 2010. Since then, it's pushed the burger chain to do share buybacks and turn more company-owned stores into franchises. Over the course of three years, Blue Harbor reaped a 75% return, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Big Miss: Blue Harbour lost 23% on its investment in auto-parts retailer CSK Auto Corp., a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal in 2013.

Who: MHR Fund Management is led by Mark Rachesky, a former lieutenant of Carl Icahn. Rachesky spent six years working for Icahn, left in 1996 and opened his own New York-based firm, MHR Fund Management.

What: MHR plowed into farm tractor tire maker Titan International, Lionsgate Entertainment Corp. and various companies in the energy sector.

AUM: $4.6 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Lionsgate is perhaps the activist's biggest face off with Icahn. Rachesky first took a 5.9% stake in Lionsgate in August 2005, and rapidly boosted his stake to 15% over the following three years. Meanwhile, Icahn was enhancing his own stake in the filmmaker. Rachesky used a debt-for-equity swap to knock out Icahn, who lost a court battle and pulled out of Lionsgate in 2011.

Big Miss: Rachesky, who is the largest shareholder in satellite firm Loral Space & Communications, attempted to find the firm a buyer. That $7 billion deal, however, fell apart in June 2014, Reuters reported.

Who: Starboard was launched in 2002 by Jeffrey Smith and Mark Mitchell, with Peter Feld joining the team in 2005. Starboard was part of Cowen Group's Ramius until Ramius spun off its hedge fund unit in early 2011. That now independent unit is still run by Smith, Mitchell and Feld.

What: The activist hedge fund firm has waged fights with Yahoo, Brink's Home Security and Macy's. It is best known for ripping apart Darden Restaurants' management in a 300-page presentation, which included an attack on the inadequate salting of Olive Garden’s pasta.

AUM: $4.67 billion as of April 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Since Smith took over as chairman of Darden Restaurants in October 2014, which runs Olive Garden and Longhorn Steakhouse, the stock has shot up nearly 60% to close at $67.49 on Wednesday. He resigned early April and said he can "move on to other projects."

Big Miss: Starboard pressed Office Depot and Staples to merge, but that fell through after a federal judge sided with the Federal Trade Commission to block the deal on anti-trust issues.

Who: The fund is run by Scott Ferguson, a protégé of Pershing Square Capital Management's William Ackman.

What: Sachem has taken positions in animal health-care group Zoetis Inc., IT provider CDK Global Inc., and software designer Autodesk.

AUM: $4.7 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Sachem Head pounced on CDK Global a month after the firm went public in early October 2014 and became its biggest investor. CDK's stock has jumped more than 80% since then.

Big Miss: Ferguson raised the idea on Zoetis to his former boss Bill Ackman and both invested in the company in 2014. The company's stock fell 3.7% in the past year, and Ferguson said it's "time to move on and find other opportunities" mid-May. Pershing Square also reduced its stake in Zoetis, Reuters reported.

Who: Trian Fund Management is founded by Wharton dropout Nelson Peltz, former President and COO of Triarc Companies (now known as The Wendy's Company) Peter May, and ex-investment banker Ed Garden in in November 2005. Peltz's estimated net worth is at $1.36 billion as of May 2016, according to Forbes.

What: The firm booked $830 million in profit following the merger of Triangle Industries and National Can Company in 1985. Trian also has held positions in several consumer brands, such as Tiffany, Arby's (all of the founders are on Wendy's/Arby's board), and RC Cola.

AUM: $11.3 billion as of February 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Bought Snapple from Quaker Oats for $300 million in 1997 and sold it 3 years later for $1.5 billion.

Big Miss: Trian lost a multimillion-dollar fight to win seats on DuPont's board last May. Pershing Square Capital Management's Bill Ackman had said that Peltz's biggest mistake in that battle was that he waited "too long," Reuters reported.

Who: Founded in 2002 by Christer Gardell, a management consultant-turned-hedge fund manager who has been dubbed a capitalist "butcher," and ex-investment banker Lars Förberg, who is based in Zurich.

What: The firm, backed by billionaire financier Carl Icahn, is the largest activist investor in Europe. It has positions in automaker Volvo, German conglomerate ThyssenKrupp, and British private security firm G4S.

AUM: $11.7 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Cevian urged British engineering company Cookson to spin off its performance materials unit at the end of 2012, which drove up investment value for the company's shareholders by more than 25%, according to Bloomberg.

Big Miss: Harlan Zimmerman, London-based senior partner at Cevian, told Business Insider that the firm has had two losses since its inception: a 20% loss in turning around Norwegian firm CTG and another "small loss" in insurance firm Munich Re.

Who: Pershing is run by Bill Ackman, who started the long/short value hedge fund in 2004 with $54 million assets under management.

What: The fund typically makes large, concentrated bets, such as the highly visible crusade against nutrition giant Herbalife. The fund has also gotten involved with JC Penney, Wendy's and Valeant Pharmaceuticals. Things aren't looking pretty for the fund this year: As of June 14, Pershing's net asset value per share fell to $16.66 from $27.91 in the same period in 2015, and posted a 20.5% loss year-to-date.

AUM: $14.8 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: In April 2014, Ackman took a stake in the pharmaceutical company Allergan and teamed up with Valeant to push for a merger deal. Pershing Square and Valeant pocketed about $2.6 billion in profits when Allergan agreed to sell itself to Actavis, according to The New York Times.

Big Miss: Valeant remains Ackman's biggest headache since August. The company's stock had a cliff dive after it was discovered to have jacked up the prices of drugs it acquired through various mergers and acquisitions. Ackman, who has a 9% stake in the company, has proposed a breakup plan to help pay down Valeant's debt, though this is unlikely to go through.

Who: Started in June 2000 by Jeff Ubben, who is known for being more long-term than your typical activist.

What: ValueAct has positions in computer software producer Adobe Systems, research and consulting firm Gartner, Rolls-Royce, and Microsoft. The fund is also fighting the Department of Justice in a lawsuit involving the proposed merger of Halliburton and Baker Hughes.

AUM: $19.4 billion as of February 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: ValueAct first got into Adobe in 2011 and got board seats in 2012. It's now sold nearly all of its shares of Adobe for over $1 billion as the stock soared 203% over the past five years, according to Forbes. That, combined with their holdings in Microsoft, mark the fund's most profitable investments.

Big Miss: ValueAct has invested in Valeant since 2006 and obtained two seats on the company's board. The pharma company had been a home run for ValueAct until the stock crashed.

Who: Founded by Daniel Loeb in 1995, who was previously vice president of high-yield bond sales at Citigroup.

What: Third Point's targets include Yahoo, Sony, auctioneer Sotheby's, and most recently, Japanese grocery and retail group Seven & i Holdings Co. Loeb, who has more recently readjusted his portfolio to focus more on short positions, characterized the first quarter of 2016 as 'one of the most catastrophic periods' for hedge funds in decades. The fund lost 2.3% as of March 31.

AUM: $22.6 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: During 3Q last year, Loeb disclosed the fund's new stake in Kraft Heinz, which reported a 136% jump in net sales post merger. The firm was one of the fund's biggest winners along with eBay and helped pull Third Point out of the red.

Big Miss: Third Point disclosed it purchased a stake in Suzuki Motor and urged the Japanese automaker to cancel all the stock bought back from Volkswagen AG following a failed alliance. The bid was unsuccessful.

Who: Carl Icahn, a New York City native, focused on arbitrage and options trading before he got into activist investing. He has an estimated net worth of $16.7 billion, according to Forbes.

What: The activist has big positions in companies including American Railcar, XO Communications, Tropicana Entertainment, CVR Energy and WestPoint Home. He's lately announced a new position in Allergan Pharmaceuticals.

AUM: $32.3 billion as of March 2016 (Source: Activist Insight)

Big Hit: Since Icahn disclosed a stake in Apple Inc. in August 2013, he's been pushing CEO Tim Cook to do more share buybacks. He cut his holding just before Apple shares started to slide this year as concerns of a slowing Chinese economy and waning sales in that market.

Big Miss: He has been hit hard by his holdings in companies like Chesapeake Energy and Freeport McRoRan amidst the commodities rout. The stocks plunged 66% and 46.5% in the past year, respectively.