NEW YORK, Jan. 03, 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 Vintage Wine Estates, Inc. (NASDAQ: VWE), Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: EIGR), Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS), and Rent the Runway, Inc. (NASDAQ: RENT). 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.
Vintage Wine Estates, Inc. (NASDAQ: VWE)
Class Period: October 13, 2021 – September 13, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 13, 2023
Vintage Wine is a vintner company that sells wines and spirits.
On September 13, 2022, Vintage Wine announced its financial results for fiscal year 2022. In its press release, the Company stated that it “recorded $19.1 million in non-cash inventory adjustments identified through efforts t[o] improve and strengthen inventory management, processes and reporting.” The Company also stated that “the [fourth] quarter included approximately $6.8 million in overhead burden that was related to the first and second quarter of fiscal 2022, but not material to the respective periods.”
On this news, the Company’s share price fell $2.23, or 40.3%, to close at $3.30 per share on September 14, 2022, on unusually high trading volume.
Throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors: (1) that, due to a material weakness related to its inventory controls and procedures, the Company lacked a reasonable basis to report inventory metrics; (2) that the Company understated its overhead burden in certain quarters, thereby overstating its adjusted EBITDA; (3) that, as a result of the foregoing, Vintage Wine was reasonably likely to incur significant charges to restate prior reporting; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendant’s positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.
For more information on the Vintage Wine class action go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/VWE
Eiger Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: EIGR)
Class Period: March 10, 2021 – October 4, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 9, 2023
On September 6, 2022, during pre-market hours, Eiger issued a press release (the “September 2022 Press Release”) “provid[ing] an update on the status of its planned request for [EUA] of peginterferon lambda for the treatment of patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 based on its most recent communications with the [FDA].” Specifically, the September 2022 Press Release stated, in relevant part, that “[f]ollowing a cooperative and extensive pre-EUA information exchange with FDA regarding the Phase 3 TOGETHER study of peginterferon lambda for COVID-19, the agency has indicated that it is not yet able to determine whether the criteria for the submission of an application and issuance of an EUA are likely to be met.”
On this news, Eiger’s stock price fell $2.51 per share, or 29.36%, to close at $6.04 per share on September 6, 2022. Despite this decline in the Company’s stock price, Eiger securities continued to trade at artificially inflated prices throughout the remainder of the Class Period because of Defendants’ continued misstatements and omissions regarding the TOGETHER study and peginterferon lambda’s regulatory and commercial prospects as a treatment for COVID-19.
For example, the September 2022 Press Release represented that “Eiger remains in active dialogue with [the] FDA and will provide additional information to the agency that the company believes could be supportive of an EUA.”
Likewise, the September 2022 Press Release advised investors that “[t]he company has recently generated new data and analyses from the TOGETHER study that it plans to discuss with FDA, including further statistical modeling and efficacy analyses of the study’s primary and secondary endpoints in patients treated within three days of symptom onset”; that “[t]he endpoint of hospitalization due to COVID-19 and all-cause mortality for patients treated within three days of symptom onset is consistent with the endpoint used to authorize other therapeutics for emergency use”; and that “Eiger plans to provide new additional analyses of long-term follow-up data, including rates of rebound and incidence of long COVID, as well as an indirect comparative analysis of mortality and hospitalizations in vaccinated patients when treated with peginterferon lambda compared to other therapeutics authorized for emergency use.”
The September 2022 Press Release also quoted Defendant Cory, who assured investors that Defendants “remain committed to continued engagement with the [FDA] to obtain the necessary alignment to submit our EUA application for peginterferon lambda,” and that “[g]iven its unique mechanism of action and the ongoing need for effective COVID-19 therapeutics, making peginterferon lambda available for patients remains a priority for Eiger.”
The statements referenced in ¶¶ 42-46 were materially false and misleading because Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Defendants overstated Eiger’s clinical and regulatory drug development expertise; (ii) Defendants failed to properly assess, and/or ignored issues with, the design of the TOGETHER study and its ability to support the peginterferon lambda EUA; (iii) there were issues with the conduct of the TOGETHER study and/or the TOGETHER study was not properly designed for the peginterferon lambda EUA in the current context of the pandemic; (iv) as a result, the FDA was unlikely to approve the submission of a peginterferon lambda EUA; (v) as a result of all the foregoing, peginterferon lambda’s regulatory and commercial prospects for the treatment of COVID-19 were overstated; and (vi) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.
On October 5, 2022, during pre-market hours, Eiger announced that it would not seek an EUA application for peginterferon lambda, stating, in relevant part:
[F]ollowing feedback from the [FDA], the company will not submit an [EUA] application of peginterferon lambda for the treatment of patients with mild-tomoderate COVID-19.
Following Eiger’s press release on September 6, 2022, the company submitted a pre-EUA meeting request to [the] FDA, as well as additional morbidity and mortality outcomes data and analyses from the investigator-sponsored TOGETHER study. This included further statistical modeling and efficacy analyses of the study’s primary and secondary endpoints and long-term follow-up data that the company believes continue to support the initial positive topline outcomes reported in March. In response, [the] FDA denied the request for a pre-EUA meeting. Citing its concerns about the conduct of the TOGETHER study, [the] FDA concluded that any authorization request based on these data is unlikely to meet the statutory criteria for issuance of an EUA in the current context of the pandemic.
On this news, Eiger’s stock price fell $0.37 per share, or 5.01%, to close at $7.02 per share on October 5, 2022.
As a result of Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of the Company’s securities, Plaintiff and other Class members have suffered significant losses and damages.
For more information on the Eiger investigation go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/EIGR
Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS)
Class Period: August 3, 2022 – November 7, 2022
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 10, 2023
On November 8, 2022, Unisys disclosed that it would not be able to timely file its third quarter 2022 financial results due to an internal investigation regarding “certain disclosure controls and procedures matters, including, but not limited to, the dissemination and communication of information within certain parts of the organization.” The Company stated that it expects that the results of the investigation may determine that there are “one or more material weaknesses” in its internal control over financial reporting.
On this news, the Company’s stock fell as much as 49% during intraday trading on November 8, 2022, thereby injuring investors.
For more information on the Unisys investigation go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/UIS
Rent the Runway, Inc. (NASDAQ: RENT)
Class Period: pursuant to the company’s October 2021 IPO
Lead Plaintiff Deadline: January 13, 2023
RTR is an e-commerce platform that allows users to rent, subscribe, or buy designer apparel and accessories. RTR offers high-end apparel such as evening wear and accessories, as well as more causal and mixed-use items such as ready-to-wear, workwear, denim, maternity, outerwear, blouses, knitwear, loungewear, jewelry, handbags, activewear, ski wear, home goods, and kidswear. RTR sources its products from over 750 luxury brand partners.
Customers can access RTR’s designer inventory in several ways. RTR gives customers ongoing access to its “unlimited closet” through its subscription offerings or the ability to rent a-la-carte through its “reserve offerings.” Subscribers and customers also have the ability to buy RTR products through its “resale offering.” In the first six months of 2021, subscription revenue represented 83% of RTR’s total revenue, reserve rental revenue represented 7.6% of RTR’s total revenue, and resale revenue represented 9.4% of RTR’s total revenue.
RTR’s business was severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020. As a luxury clothing provider, RTR’s sales and services suffered from stay-athome orders and the decline in opportunities for social gatherings among its customer base. Between its fiscal 2019 and 2020, RTR’s revenues declined nearly 40% to $157.5 million and its total active subscribers declined nearly 60% to 54,797 active subscribers.1
In the months leading up to the IPO, RTR claimed that it was experiencing a business resurgence as concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic lessened, lockdown orders ceased, and its customers engaged in more social outings. For example, the Company stated that it had grown to 111,732 active subscribers as of September 30, 2021, representing 104% growth since the beginning of fiscal year 2021. Similarly, the Registration Statement stated that during RTR’s second quarter of 2021 (the quarter immediately prior to the IPO) quarterly revenues had grown to $46.7 million, representing 62% growth year-over-year.
On October 4, 2021, the Company filed with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-1 for the IPO, which, after several amendments, was declared effective on October 26, 2021 (the “Registration Statement”). On October 27, 2021, the Company filed with the SEC a prospectus for the IPO on Form 424B4, which incorporated and formed part of the Registration Statement (the “Prospectus”). The Registration Statement and Prospectus were used to sell to the investing public 17 million shares of RTR Class A common stock at $21 per share for $357 million in gross offering proceeds, which was used in substantial part to pay back debt from certain of the Company’s private equity backers.
For more information on the Rent the Runway class action go to:
https://bespc.com/cases/RENT
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
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Contact Information:
Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C.
Brandon Walker, Esq.
Melissa Fortunato, Esq.
(212) 355-4648
[email protected]
www.bespc.com
