NEW YORK, April 22, 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 Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. (NASDAQ: SDIG), AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV), Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR), and Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. (NYSE: LICY). 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.
Stronghold Digital Mining, Inc. (NASDAQ: SDIG)
Class Period: October 22, 2021 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 13, 2022
In October 2021, the Company completed its IPO, selling 7,690,400 shares of Class A common stock at $19.00 per share.
On March 29, 2022, after the market closed, Stronghold announced its fourth quarter and full year 2021 financial results. The Company reported a net loss of $0.52 for the quarter, below analyst estimates of $0.04 earnings per share, and Stronghold’s Chief Executive Officer cited “significant headwinds in our operations which have materially impacted recent financial performance.”
On this news, the Company’s stock price fell as much as $3.28, or 32%, to close at $6.97 per share on March 30, 2022. As of April 14, 2022, Stronghold stock has traded as low as $4.78 per share, a more than 75% decline from the $19 per share IPO price.
The complaint filed in this class action alleges that the Registration Statement was materially false and misleading and omitted to state: (1) that contracted suppliers, including MinerVa, were reasonably likely to miss anticipated delivery quantities and deadlines; (2) that, due to strong demand and pre-sold supply of mining equipment in the industry, Stronghold would experience difficulties obtaining miners outside of confirmed purchase orders; (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, there was a significant risk that Stronghold could not expand its mining capacity as expected; (4) that, as a result, Stronghold would likely experience significant losses; and (5) as a result, Defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked reasonable basis at all relevant times.
For more information on the Stronghold class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/SDIG
AbbVie, Inc. (NYSE: ABBV)
Class Period: April 30, 2021 – August 31, 2021
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 6, 2022
AbbVie is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. The company's revenues will come under significant pressure in the coming years when its best-selling drug, Humira, will lose patent protection in 2023. Accordingly, AbbVie's future revenue and earnings depend in large part on its ability to develop new sources of revenue to offset Humira's lost sales. Rinvoq—an anti-inflammatory drug manufactured by AbbVie and used to treat rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and other diseases by inhibiting Janus kinase (JAK) enzymes—was touted as one such drug. Rinvoq was initially approved in the United States to treat only moderate to severe RA. However, AbbVie was actively pursuing additional treatment indications and, in 2020, asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve Rinvoq for the treatment of several other diseases.
As is relevant here, Rinvoq is similar to other JAK inhibitor drugs, including Xeljanz, manufactured by Pfizer Inc. When the FDA approved Xeljanz in 2012 for the treatment of RA, it required an additional safety trial to evaluate Xeljanz's risk of triggering certain serious side effects. Beginning in February 2019, the FDA repeatedly warned the public that the safety trial indicated that Xeljanz's use could lead to serious heart-related issue, cancer, and other adverse events. Notwithstanding the similarities between Rinvoq and Xeljanz, during the Class Period, Defendants assured investors that Rinvoq was far safer than Xeljanz and not subject to the same regulatory risks.
However, investors began to learn the truth about Rinvoq's significant risks on June 25, 2021, when AbbVie revealed that the FDA was delaying its review of expanded treatment applications for Rinvoq due to the safety concerns associated with Xeljanz. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $1.76 per share, or approximately 1.5%, from a close of $114.74 per share on June 24, 2021, to close at $112.98 per share on June 25, 2021.
Then, on September 1, 2021, the FDA announced that final results from the Xeljanz safety trial established an increased risk of serious adverse events, even with low doses of Xeljanz. As a result, the FDA determined that it would require new and updated warnings for Xeljanz and Rinvoq because Rinvoq "share[s] similar mechanisms of action with Xeljanz" and "may have similar risks as seen in the Xeljanz safety trial." The FDA also indicated that it would further limit approved indications for Rinvoq as a result of these safety concerns. On this news, the price of AbbVie common stock declined $8.51 per share, or more than 7%, from a close of $120.78 per share on August 31, 2021, to close at $112.27 per share on September 1, 2021.
After the Class Period, on December 3, 2021, AbbVie announced that the FDA had updated Rinvoq's label to require additional safety warnings and limit marketing of Rinvoq to only its use after treatment with other drugs has failed. On January 11, 2022, Defendants admitted that these changes to Rinvoq's label would negatively impact sales, forcing the Company to reduce its long-term guidance for Rinvoq's sales in 2025.
The complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period, the Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, about the company's business and operations. Specifically, Defendants misrepresented and/or failed to disclose that: (1) safety concerns about Xeljanz extended to Rinvoq and other JAK inhibitors; (2) as a result, it was likely that the FDA would require additional safety warnings for Rinvoq and would delay the approval of additional treatment indications for Rinvoq; and (3) therefore, Defendants' statements about the company's business, operations, and prospects lacked a reasonable basis, As a result of the Defendants' wrongful acts and omissions, and the significant decline in the market value of AbbVie's securities, AbbVie investors have suffered significant damages.
For more information on the AbbVie class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/ABBV
Twitter, Inc. (NYSE: TWTR)
Class Period: March 24, 2022 – April 1, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 13, 2022
Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and Space-X, and according to Forbes, the richest person in the world, started to acquire shares of Twitter beginning in January 2022. By March 14, 2022, Musk had acquired more than a 5% ownership stake in Twitter, requiring him to file a Schedule 13 with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) within 10 days, or March 24, 2022.
Musk did not file a Schedule 13 with the SEC within the required time and instead continued to amass Twitter shares, eventually acquiring a 9.1% stake in the Company before finally filing a Schedule 13 on April 4, 2022. By the time Musk filed the required Schedule 13, revealing his ownership stake in Twitter, the Company’s share rose from a closing price of $39.31 per share on April 1, 2022, to close at $49.97 per share on April 4, 2022 – an increase of approximately 27%.
Investors who sold shares of Twitter Stock between March 24, 2022, and before the actual April 4, 2022 disclosure, missed the resulting share price increase as the market reacted to Musk’s purchases. By failing to timely disclose his ownership stake, Musk was able to acquire shares of Twitter less expensively during the Class Period.
For more information on the Twitter class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/TWTR
Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. (NYSE: LICY)
Class Period: February 16, 2021 – March 23, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 20, 2022
On March 24, 2022, Blue Orca Capital published a report (the "Report") characterizing the Company as "a near fatal combination of stock promotion, laughable governance, a broken business hemorrhaging cash, and highly questionable Enron-like accounting." According to the Report, “Li-Cycle recognizes revenues using an Enron-like mark-to-model accounting gimmick Li-Cycle recognizes revenues months prior to the actual sales of its recycled black mass, based on its own provisional estimate of the future value of the product. This accounting treatment is plainly vulnerable to abuse, giving Li-Cycle discretion over its reported revenues. We suspect that under this framework, Li-Cycle marks up the value of its receivables on unsold products and runs the gains through its revenue line.”
According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (1) Li-Cycle’s largest customer, Traxys North America LLC, is not actually a customer, but merely a broker providing working capital financial to the Company while Traxys tries to sell Li-Cycle’s product to end customers; (2) the Company engaged in highly questionable related party transactions; (3) the Company’s mark-to-model accounting is vulnerable to abuse and gave a false impression of growth; (4) a significant portion of the Company’s reported revenues were derived from simply marking up receivables on products that had not been sold; (5) the Company’s gross margins have likely been negative since inception; (6) the Company will require an additional $1 billion of funding to support its planned growth (which is a figure greater than the Company raised via the merger); and (7) as a result, defendants’ public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages.
On this news, Li-Cycle’s stock price fell $0.47 cents per share, or 5.60% to close at $7.93 per share on March 24, 2022.
For more information on the Li-Cycle class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/LICY
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
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