NEW YORK, Aug. 11, 2023 (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 Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ: STX), Baxter International, Inc. (NYSE: BAX), Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR), and Syneos Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNH). 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.
Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ: STX)
Class Period: September 15, 2020 – October 25, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: September 8, 2023
Seagate is a leading global supplier of data storage products, including hard disk drives (“HDDs”). By the start of the Class Period, Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (“Huawei”), a Chinese multinational technology, had emerged as a significant global purchaser of data storage products, including HDDs, produced by Seagate and other U.S.-based suppliers.
On May 16, 2019, Huawei and certain of its non-U.S. affiliates were added to the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Industry and Security’s (“BIS”) Export Administration Regulations (“EAR”) Entity List (“Entity List”). The EAR Entity List is a list of names of certain foreign persons and entities that are subject to specific license requirements for the export, re-export, and/or transfer (in-country) of specified items. The Entity List designation was based on a determination made by multiple U.S. government agencies “that there is reasonable cause to believe that Huawei has been involved in activities contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
Then, on August 17, 2020, the BIS imposed export controls over certain foreign-produced items “to better address the continuing threat to U.S. national security and U.S. foreign policy interests posed by Huawei and its non-U.S. affiliates.”
On October 26, 2022, Seagate disclosed that it received a Proposed Charging Letter from the BIS alleging that Seagate violated the EAR by providing Seagate HDDs to “a customer and its affiliates listed on the BIS Entity List between August 2020 and September 2021.”
On this news, the price of Seagate common stock fell nearly 8%, damaging investors. Over the following three trading days, Seagate’s stock price continued to drift lower, falling an additional nearly 7%.
As the Seagate class action lawsuit alleges, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose: (i) the nature and magnitude of Seagate’s HDD sales to Huawei, including that Seagate experienced a significant acceleration in sales to Huawei immediately after the BIS rules went into effect and Seagate’s competitors stopped selling to Huawei; and (ii) that the underlying details of Seagate’s HDD manufacturing process, including the use of covered U.S. software and technology in “essential ‘production’” processes, rendered its sales to Huawei in violation of the BIS export rules As a result, Seagate was in blatant violation of the BIS export rules which resulted in an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Commerce and exposed Seagate to hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and penalties.
For more information on the Seagate class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/STX
Baxter International, Inc. (NYSE: BAX)
Class Period: May 25, 2022 – February 8, 2023
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: September 11, 2023
On February 9, 2023, after making numerous statements assuring investors that it could operate successfully despite global challenges to its supply chain, Baxter revealed that it had not achieved control over its supply chain problems and that its earnings guidance had been unreliable for some time.
Following this news, Baxter shares fell $5.23 per share, or 11.5%, from $45.37 to close at $40.14 per share on February 9, 2023.
The complaint alleges that defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the Company concealed the true extent of the supply chain problems it was experiencing while simultaneously exaggerating its ability to maintain a healthy supply chain in the face of global pressures; (ii) as a result, the Company’s projected earnings were materially misleading during the Class Period; (iii) the foregoing, once revealed, was reasonably likely to have a material negative impact on the Company’s financial condition; and (iv) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Over the course of the Class Period, Baxter’s stock price declined by nearly 50%, eliminating billions of dollars in market capitalization.
For more information on the Baxter class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/BAX
Danaher Corporation (NYSE: DHR)
Class Period: April 21, 2022 – April 24, 2023
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: September 15, 2023
Danaher designs, manufactures, and markets professional, medical, industrial, and commercial products and services worldwide. The Company is comprised of more than 20 operating companies organized under four segments: Biotechnology; Life Sciences; Diagnostics; and Environmental & Applied Solutions.
In 2020 and 2021, Danaher's diagnostic tests and life sciences research tools were widely used in the effort to combat the COVID-19 virus. Specifically, Danaher's diagnostics segment included Cepheid, a leader in molecular testing, and its life sciences segment included a variety of companies that worked to develop COVID-19 vaccines and therapies. As a result, Danaher experienced a significant upswing in revenue growth over the course of this period.
On April 25, 2023, Danaher issued a press release announcing its financial results for the first quarter of 2023. Among other items, Danaher reported that "[r]evenues decreased 7.0% year-over-year to $7.2 billion, with a 4.0% non-GAAP core revenue decrease, due to the impact of lower COVID-19 revenue, and 6.0% non-GAAP base business core revenue growth." The Company also projected that "[f]or the second quarter and full year 2023, . . . non-GAAP base business core revenue growth will be up mid-single digits year-over-year", down from an earlier projection of high-single-digit growth. Notably, this announcement appeared to be at odds with Danaher's prior reassurances that revenues associated with the Company's non-COVID-19-related businesses would compensate for the foregoing negative results.
On this news, Danaher's stock price fell $22.36 per share, or 8.79%, to close at $231.99 per share on April 25, 2023.
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) as the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic subsided, revenue growth associated with Danaher's COVID-19-related businesses was declining; (ii) contrary to the Company's prior representations to investors, revenues associated with Danaher's non-COVID-19-related businesses were insufficient to compensate for the foregoing negative trend; (iii) accordingly, Danaher overstated the Company's ability to sustain the growth it had experienced in 2020 and 2021; (iv) as a result, it was unlikely that Danaher would be able to meet its 2023 revenue forecasts; and (v) as a result, Defendants' public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times.
For more information on the Danaher class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/DHR
Syneos Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: SYNH)
Class Period: September 9, 2020 – November 3, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: September 25, 2023
On February 17, 2022, Syneos revealed that its reimbursable expenses would likely never recover to pre-pandemic levels. As a result, Syneos segregated reimbursable expenses from many of its operational metrics, revealing that $3.8 billion of Syneos’ Clinical Solutions backlog (36%) was at risk of never being collected and providing an alarmingly low book-to-bill ratio of just 0.34x in the segment when reimbursable expenses were included. Although Syneos did not disclose the magnitude of the backlog “adjustment,” some analysts estimated that Syneos had eliminated as much as $950 million in prior pass-through revenues.
On this news, the price of Syneos common stock fell nearly 5%.
Then, on August 2, 2022, Syneos revealed substantial deterioration in its business, disclosing that net new business awards within Syneos’ Clinical Solutions segment had declined by roughly 34% including reimbursable expenses and 15% excluding reimbursable expenses, reflecting book-to-bill ratios of 0.94x and 1.29x, respectively. In addition, Syneos disclosed that it would not achieve even its lowered expectations for reimbursable revenues for the year, causing Syneos to slash expected 2022 revenues by $185 million at the midpoint.
On this news, the price of Syneos common stock fell more than 17%.
Thereafter, on September 13, 2022, Syneos disclosed that it expected to announce a book-to bill ratio in its Clinical Solutions segment for the trailing 12 months ending September 30, 2022 in the range of 1.05x to 1.15x, excluding reimbursable expenses.
On this news, the price of Syneos common stock declined nearly 17%.
Subsequently, on November 4, 2022, Syneos revealed that its book-to-bill ratios had plummeted below even the reduced figures provided in September 2022. Specifically, Syneos stated that its Clinical Solutions segment had achieved net new business awards of $182 million including reimbursable expenses – a startling year-over-year decline of 87% – and a book-to-bill ratio of just 0.18x for the quarter, which was just one-tenth of the new business growth expected by some analysts.
On this news, the price of Syneos common stock fell more than 46%, further damaging investors.
As the Syneos class action lawsuit alleges, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Syneos’ business development capabilities had been materially impaired by workforce reductions and leadership and operational changes, as well as labor force turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; (ii) Syneos had struggled to integrate recent acquisitions, causing Syneos to suffer from a bloated and confused organizational structure and impairing Syneos’ ability to provide comprehensive or effective customer engagement across its product portfolio; (iii) Syneos was suffering from acute competitive disadvantages as clinical trials moved to remote monitoring and decentralized administration, as Syneos lacked the tools possessed by some of its rivals to successfully run remote and decentralized trials, such as certain data visualization and statistical modeling capabilities, and Syneos had failed to adapt to changing business demands in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic; (iv) Syneos’ backlog, book-to-bill ratios, and net new business awards had been artificially inflated by more than $500 million through the inclusion of reimbursable expenses that Syneos would never collect; (v) as a result of the above, Syneos was struggling to execute on its existing contracts and to agilely respond to its client needs, causing Syneos to suffer client dissatisfaction across its client base; and (vi) consequently, Syneos was exposed to a material undisclosed risk that Syneos would lose customers, be unable to grow its client base or win significant contract renewals, and cede market share to its rivals.
For more information on the Syneos class action go to: https://bespc.com/cases/SYNH
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
