NEW YORK, April 11, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, reminds investors that class actions have been commenced on behalf of stockholders of Cerence, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC), Affirm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM), Cabaletta Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: CABA), and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC). Stockholders have until the deadlines below to petition the court to serve as lead plaintiff. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.
Cerence, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRNC)
Class Period: February 8, 2021 – February 4, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 26, 2022
Cerence is a Burlington, Massachusetts-based company that focuses on building artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistants primarily for the automotive market. Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, supply-chain issues, and the semiconductor shortage, which reduced the global production of automobiles, Cerence continued to report growing revenues and strong demand for software licenses for its products. Cerence even touted its “visibility” into demand for its products by providing revenue guidance for fiscal year 2024, guidance that was a focus of securities analysts and that the Company raised significantly during the Class Period.
The Class Action alleges that, during the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects in violation of the Exchange Act and SEC Rule 10b-5. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose: (1) that the global semiconductor shortage had a materially negative impact on demand for Cerence’s software licenses; (2) that Defendants masked the impact of the semiconductor shortage on demand for the Company’s software licenses by pulling forward sales; and (3) that, as a result of the above, Defendants’ statements about Cerence’s business, operations, and prospects were false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
The truth began to emerge during Cerence’s earnings call on November 22, 2021 for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2021 ended on September 30, 2021, causing Cerence’s stock price to fall and investors to suffer substantial losses. On that call, Cerence announced revenue guidance for fiscal year 2022 that was well below analysts’ expectations. In response to this revelation, Cerence’s stock price fell more than 20 percent from a closing price of $104.06 the prior trading day, to a close of $82.59 on November 22, 2021. The Company’s stock price continued to fall another 5% the following day to close at $78.27 on November 23, 2021.
Then, approximately three weeks later, Cerence’s Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) Sanjay Dhawan abruptly resigned. On this news, Cerence’s stock price fell an additional 11% from a closing price of $78.08 on December 14, 2021 to a closing price of $69.20 on December 15, 2021.
Finally, on February 7, 2022, the Company announced results for its fiscal first quarter of 2022 ended on December 31, 2021 and shocked the market with three disclosures. First, the Company announced that Chief Financial Officer Mark Gallenberger would be retiring, effective March 11, 2022. Next, during its earnings conference call, new CEO Stefan Ortmanns announced he had conducted a review of each of the Cerence business units’ plans, forecasts, and assumptions, and determined the “conversion from bookings to revenue will take longer than expected.” As a result, Cerence was forced to lower its fiscal year 2022 guidance, only a few months after providing disappointing guidance for the same period. Finally, Cerence completely withdrew the closely watched fiscal year 2024 guidance. On this news, Cerence’s stock price fell an additional 30%, from a closing price of $63.58 on the prior trading day of February 4, 2022, to close at $43.61 on February 7, 2022.
For more information on the Cerence class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/CRNC
Affirm Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: AFRM)
Class Period: February 10, 2022 after 1:15pm
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 29, 2022
Affirm purports to be a “next generation platform for digital and mobile-first commerce.” Through its platform, the Company offers “buy now, pay later” or “BNPL” services to consumers. Affirm represents itself “a more flexible and transparent alternative to credit cards.”
At approximately 1:15 p.m. on February 10, 2022, Affirm issued a Tweet from its official account in which the Company disclosed certain metrics from its second quarter 2022 financial results. The Tweet, which was published prior to the Company’s planned release of its financial results, portrayed a highly successful quarter, which included an increase in revenue of 77%. This caused Affirm’s share price to spike nearly 10% in intra-day trading.
The Tweet was materially misleading, in that it omitted to disclose the full details of Affirm’s second quarter financial results.
Indeed, the Company deleted the Tweet and released its full second quarter financial results ahead of schedule. The full financial results were lackluster – with the Company posting a loss of $0.57 per share, compared with analyst expectations of $0.37 per share.
On this news, Affirm’s share price plummeted from an intra-day high of $83.57 per share on February 10, 2022, to close at $58.68 per share, or approximately 32%.
For more information on the Affirm class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/AFRM
Cabaletta Bio, Inc. (NASDAQ: CABA)
Class Period: October 24, 2019 IPO; October 24, 2019 – December 13, 2021
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 29, 2022
According to the lawsuit, the IPO offering documents and defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) top-line data of the Phase 1 Clinical Trial indicated that DSG3-CAART had, among other things, worsened certain participants' disease activity scores and necessitated additional systemic medication to improve disease activity after DSG3-CAART infusion; (2) accordingly, DSG3-CAART was not as effective as the Company had represented to investors; (3) therefore, the Company had overstated DSG3-CAART's clinical and/or commercial prospects; and (4) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
For more information on the Cabaletta class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/CABA
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC)
Class Period: April 27, 2017 – February 25, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 2, 2022
The lawsuit focuses on whether the Company and its executives violated federal securities laws by making false and/or misleading statements and/or failing to disclose that: (1) Ericsson overstated the extent to which it had reformed its business practices to eliminate the use of bribes to secure business in foreign countries; (2) Ericsson had paid bribes to the terrorist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (“ISIS” or the “Islamic State”) to gain access to certain transport routes in Iraq; (3) accordingly, the Company's revenues derived from its operations in Iraq were, in at least substantial part, derived from unlawful conduct and thus unsustainable; and (4) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On February 15, 2022, during intraday trading hours, Ericsson issued a press release disclosing media inquiries into its business dealings in Iraq. That press release assured investors of the Company’s “transparency” regarding these inquiries, while vaguely alluding to having undertaken its own investigative and compliance efforts.
Then, on February 16, 2022, Ericsson's Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”) told a Swedish newspaper that the Company may have made payments to ISIS to gain access to certain transport routes in Iraq, noting that the Company had identified “unusual expenses dating back to 2018” but had not yet determined the final recipient of the funds for those expenses, although Defendants could “see that it disappeared[,]” and that Ericsson has spent “considerable resources trying to understand this as best we can.”
Following these disclosures, Ericsson's American Depositary Share (“ADS”) price fell $1.44 per ADS, or 11.57%, to close at $11.01 per ADS on February 16, 2022.
Finally, on Sunday, February 27, 2022, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (“ICIJ”) published a report on Ericsson’s alleged dealings with ISIS in Iraq, citing a leaked internal investigation that revealed that Ericsson had reportedly made "tens of millions of dollars in suspicious payments” over nearly a decade to keep its business in the country.
The ICIJ report also alleged that “a spreadsheet lists company probes into possible bribery, money laundering and embezzlement by employees in Angola, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Brazil, China, Croatia, Libya, Morocco, the United States and South Africa[,]” which “have not been previously disclosed.”
On this news, Ericsson's ADS price fell $0.84 per ADS, or 8.3%, from its closing price on February 25, 2022, to close at $9.28 per ADS on February 28, 2022, the next trading day.
For more information on the Ericsson class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/ERIC
About Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C. is a nationally recognized law firm with offices in New York, California, and South Carolina. The firm represents individual and institutional investors in commercial, securities, derivative, and other complex litigation in state and federal courts across the country. For more information about the firm, please visit www.bespc.com. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Contact Information:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.
Brandon Walker, Esq.
Alexandra B. Raymond, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
investigations@bespc.com
www.bespc.com
