Cornerstone Research (in conjunction with the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse) has released its 2014 midyear report on federal securities class action filings.
The findings for the first half of 2014 include:
(1) There were 78 filings, which closely matches the pace of the first half of 2013. Approximately one in sixty companies listed on a major exchange were sued.
(2) Healthcare, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical companies were the most frequent targets for securities class actions, accounting for 21% of the filings.
(3) The number of filings in the Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits was up sharply, already equaling or eclipsing the full year totals for 2013.
Quote of note (Professor Grundfest – Stanford): “The most intriguing new trend in the market concerns high-frequency trading and allegations related to Michael Lewis’s Flash Boys. There lawsuits are very much in the early stages, and raise issues with a degree of economic complexity that far surpass the challenges encountered in the typical class action securities fraud case as we know it.”
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