The 10b-5 Daily is catching up on posts after a very busy August and September, so thanks everyone for your patience. NERA Economic Consulting and Cornerstone Research released their 20224 midyear reports on securities class action filings in August. While the different methodologies employed by the two organizations usually lead to slightly different numbers, they managed mostly to match for this report.
The key findings include:
(1) The reports agree that filings are at steady levels as compared to 2023, with only a handful of merger objection cases. Both NERA and Cornerstone find that there were 112 filings in the first half of 2024 (up slightly from the second half of 2023).
(2) The categories of filings that both reports identify as potential growth areas for the year are COVID-19 (7-8 filings) and artificial intelligence (6 filings). In contrast, SPAC, cryptocurrency, and cybersecurity filings are down relative to past years.
(3) Both reports find that the annual number of filings against foreign companies is on track to be the lowest in the last ten years, even while the percentage of U.S. listings by foreign companies has steadily increased. For example, Cornerstone finds that foreign companies currently make up 24.7% of U.S. listings, but have only been the subject of 14.2% of the filings in the first half of 2024.
(4) NERA finds that there were 100 cases resolved in the first half of 2024, if which 52 were dismissed and 48 were settled.
The NERA report can be found here and the Cornerstone report can be found here.
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