NEW YORK, April 13, 2024 (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 Agilon health, inc. (NYSE: AGL), Next Bridge Hydrocarbons, Inc. (NBH), Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLS), and Bluebird bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE). 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.
Agilon health, inc. (NYSE: AGL)
Class Period: (1) Agilon common stock purchases traceable to the April 2021 initial public offering of Agilon stock (the “IPO”); (2) pursuant, or traceable, or both, to materials issued in connection with the Company’s secondary public offering (the “SPO Materials”) that occurred on or about May 16, 2023; and/or (3) common stock between April 15, 2021 and February 27, 2024
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 20, 2024
Agilon, headquartered in Austin, Texas, generates profits from reducing medical expenditures. By partnering primarily with Medicare Advantage (“MA”) plans as well as traditional Medicare and commercial managed care organizations, agilon receives a fixed monthly payment from payers for each patient under its care. In return, agilon takes on the responsibility of managing the total cost and quality of care for those patients. This model incentivizes agilon and its contracted physician partners to focus on preventive care and improve health outcomes in order to control costs. If the total cost of caring for patients is less than the fixed payments agilon receives, it realizes a profit. However, if costs exceed the payments, agilon incurs a loss.
The Complaint alleges that, throughout the Class Period and in the SPO Materials, Defendants misled investors about agilon’s medical costs by: (1) touting the Company’s purported visibility into utilization trends and medical costs; (2) failing to disclose increased medical costs that agilon had incurred prior to and during the Class Period due to higher utilization of healthcare by MA patients; (3) falsely stating that its accounting reserves for higher-than-expected medical costs were adequate; (4) making false and misleading statements about the effectiveness of its business model; (5) issuing overly optimistic financial guidance; and (6) issuing risk disclosures that were materially false and misleading because they characterized adverse facts that had already materialized as mere possibilities.
On November 2, 2023, agilon reported lower-than-expected third quarter 2023 results due to increased utilization and medical costs. Defendants also lowered the Company’s 2023 full-year revenue outlook and informed investors that agilon had increased its accounting reserve for prior period medical expenses.
On this news, agilon’s stock price fell $2.23, or 13.2 percent, to close at $14.66 on November 3, 2023.
Then, on January 5, 2024, agilon surprised investors again by lowering its 2023 profit forecasts. agilon also announced that its Chief Financial Officer, Timothy Bensley would retire and be replaced later in the year.
On this news, agilon’s stock fell $3.45, or 28.6 percent, to close at $8.63 on January 5, 2024.
For more information on the agilon class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/AGL
Next Bridge Hydrocarbons, Inc. (NBH)
Class Period: Shares of NBH in connection with the Company’s spin-off from Meta Materials, Inc. on or around December 14, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 14, 2024
The complaint alleges that NBH filed a registration statement in connection with its spin-off from Meta Materials that contained false and/or materially misleading statements. The statements at issue concern the value of the Company’s oil and gas assets and NBH’s transactions with related parties. The complaint alleges that these false and/or materially misleading statements violated the Securities Act of 1933 and, consequently, damaged shareholders who received NBH shares in conjunction with the spin-off.
For more information on the NBH class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/NBH
Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: SHLS)
Class Period: May 17, 2022 – November 7, 2023 (Common Stock Only)
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 21, 2024
According to the filed complaint, throughout the Class Period, Defendants touted the Company’s “focus on quality and reliability” with regard to its EBOS components, from which Shoals generated the majority of its revenue during the Class Period. These components were backed by a product warranty Shoals provided to its customers. Shoals highlighted that its products “meet [the Company’s] stringent quality requirements.” As the Company’s warranty supported the products meeting “stringent quality requirements,” Shoals assured investors throughout the Class Period that its reported “Cost of Revenue” included costs related to product warranty liability.
In Shoals’ Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2023, filed with the SEC on May 8, 2023 (the “1Q23 10-Q”), investors were first informed of a potential issue involving “a subset of wire harnesses used in [Shoals’] EBOS solutions [] presenting excessive pull back of wire insulation at connection points,” which Shoals dubbed “shrinkback.” Shoals also sought to ease investors’ concerns by reporting that it had “substantially ceased use of the related wire.”
Then, on August 1, 2023, Shoals filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2023 (“2Q23 10-Q”) with the SEC and held a conference call with analysts to discuss its results for the quarter. The 2Q23 10-Q disclosed that Shoals had recorded a warranty liability of $9.3 million related to the shrinkback issue. During the corresponding call with analysts, Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch asked Defendants to “talk a little bit about the wire issues . . . how extensive it was in terms of the number of customers and number of shipments and how much time it was spread over?” In response, Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) Dominic Bardos stated, “We’ve communicated pretty much everything we can.” CFO Bardos also confirmed that “[t]he charge that we booked in the quarter we believe is adequate to do the remediation required, and that’s why we booked it.”
The filed complaint further alleges that, in reality, and as remained undisclosed to investors, Shoals learned of customers experiencing wire insulation shrinkback by no later than March 2022. For example, in March 2022, Shoals learned of exposed copper conduit resulting from shrinkback in EBOS wire harnesses at a customer’s solar field in Arizona. Indeed, throughout 2022, Shoals learned of numerous customers experiencing similar copper conduit exposure, or shrinkback. As investors belatedly found out, Shoals had installed defective wire harnesses in at least 300 solar fields. These harnesses represented approximately 30% of the total amount of Shoals harnesses manufactured between 2020 and 2022. As a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s financial guidance, business, operations, and prospects during the Class Period were materially false and/or misleading.
On November 7, 2023, Shoals stunned the market by revealing that the Company had been forced to take an additional $50.2 million charge for warranty expense as result of the wire shrinkback issue. Shoals further advised that it expected the wire shrinkback issue to cost between $59.7 million and $184.9 million dollars to remedy.
On this news, Shoals’ stock price fell more than 20%, from a closing price of $16.23 per share on November 7, 2023, to a closing price of $12.95 per share on November 9, 2023, wiping out approximately $550 million in market capitalization.
Securities analysts were shocked by the disclosure and linked Shoals’ sharp stock price decline to the warranty charge. For example, in a report dated November 10, 2023, analysts at Barclays declared that “the upper end of the $60-$185mm came as surprise to investors and has contributed to the underperformance of the stock.” Similarly, analysts at Truist noted that the third-quarter results “were heavily impacted by a ~$50mm warranty charge that drove unadjusted 3Q [gross margins] well below our/street estimates.”
For more information on the Shoals class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/SHLS
Bluebird bio Inc. (NASDAQ: BLUE)
Class Period: April 24, 2023 – December 8, 2023
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 27, 2024
Blue is a biotechnology company that researches, develops, and commercializes gene therapies for severe genetic diseases. Its product candidates for severe genetic diseases include ZYNTEGLO (betibeglogene autotemcel) for the treatment of transfusion-dependent ßthalassemia; LYFGENIA (lovotibeglogene autotemcel) for the treatment of sickle cell disease (SCD); and SKYSONA (elivaldogene autotemcel) to treat cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.
On April 24, 2023, Defendants announced submission of its Biologics License Application (BLA) to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for lovotibeglogene autotemcel (lovo-cel) gene therapy in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) ages 12 and older who have a history of vaso-occlusive events (VOEs). The BLA also included a request for priority review, which, if granted, would shorten the FDA’s review of the application to six months from the time of filing, versus a standard review timeline of 10 months.
According to the complaint, the Company’s announcement provided investors with false and misleading information in order to bolster investor expectations and share prices. Specifically, Defendants created the false impression that: (i) they could obtain FDA approval for lovo-cel without any box warnings for haematological malignancies; (ii) they would be granted a priority review voucher by the FDA and in turn sell it in order to strengthen their financial position for the lovocel launch; (iii) as a result, the Company had significantly overstated Lyfgenia’s clinical and/or commercial prospects; and (iv) therefore, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. This caused Plaintiff and other shareholders to purchase Blue’s securities at artificially inflated prices.
On December 8, 2023, Blue issued a press release announcing that it received approval from the FDA for its ex-vivo gene therapy drug Lyfgenia for sickle cell disease. Along with the approval came a black box warning for haematological malignancies with a requirement to monitor patients for cancer through complete blood counts at least every six months for at least 15 years, plus viral vector integration site analysis at month 6, 12 and as warranted. Further, the Company’s anticipated priority review voucher was denied by the FDA.
On this news, the price of Blue’s common stock declined from a closing market price of $4.81 per share on December 7, 2023, to $2.86 per share on December 8, 2023.
For more information on the Blue class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/BLUE
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.
Marion Passmore, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
investigations@bespc.com
www.bespc.com
