NEW YORK, June 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bragar Eagel & Squire, P.C., a nationally recognized shareholder rights law firm, is investigating potential claims against Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE: FOUR), Waldencast Plc (NASDAQ: WALD), Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ: STX), and Chegg, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHGG). Our investigations concern whether these companies have violated the federal securities laws and/or engaged in other unlawful business practices. Additional information about each case can be found at the link provided.
Shift4 Payments, Inc. (NYSE: FOUR)
On April 19, 2023, Blue Orca Capital issued a report on Shift4 Payments, Inc., alleging that the Company “engaged in a string of highly questionable and hyper aggressive accounting maneuvers seemingly designed to keep the stock afloat, from cash flow manipulation to inexplicable distributor acquisitions that enabled it to capitalize a major component of COGS.”
The report also alleges that “Shift4’s CFO abruptly left the Company the day before its Q2 2022 earnings call, amidst a lengthy string of correspondence with the SEC over its accounting. Its auditor warned of a material weakness over internal controls the very next quarter, just as it spent $256.4 million in a string of M&A that enabled it to capitalize a material share of COGS.”
Shares of Shift4 Payments stock dropped more than 12% in intraday trading on April 19, 2023.
For more information on the Shift4 investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/FOUR
Waldencast Plc (NASDAQ: WALD)
On April 25, 2023, Waldencast announced that it will be unable to file its 2022 annual report on time and will be postponing its fiscal year 2022 and fourth quarter earnings call due to an ongoing review of the Company’s year-end 2022 financial statements. Specifically, the Company is conducting an analysis regarding certain accounting issues in connection with the sale of certain Obagi products for the Vietnam market.
On this news, the price of Waldencast shares declined by $0.57 per share, or approximately 6.20%, from $9.20 per share to close at $8.63 on April 25, 2023.
For more information on the Waldencast investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/WALD
Seagate Technology Holdings Plc (NASDAQ: STX)
On April 19, 2023, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a release stating BIS imposed a $300 million penalty against Seagate related to shipments to Huawei. The release reported the civil penalty is to “resolve alleged violations of U.S. export controls related to selling hard disk drives (HDDs) to Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. (Huawei) in violation of the foreign direct product (FDP) rule. This historic foreign direct product enforcement case and settlement represents the largest standalone administrative penalty in BIS history. Today’s resolution also includes a multi-year audit requirement and a five-year suspended Denial Order.”
On this news, Seagate’s stock price fell $2.44, or 3.88%, in intraday trading on April 20, 2023.
For more information on the Seagate investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/STX
Chegg, Inc. (NYSE: CHGG)
On February 6, 2023, after the markets closed, Chegg held a conference call to discuss its results for the fourth quarter of 2022. During the call, an analyst asked Chief Executive Officer Dan Rosensweig whether, as a result of ChatGPT, Chegg was "seeing any impact on [its] business in terms of new subscriber growth or returning subscribers." Rosensweig responded, "No. Nothing at all that is noticeable. And obviously, we're going to track it, but we've seen nothing."
Then, on April 17, 2023, Chegg announced the launch of CheggMate, a new AI-enhanced learning service built on the most advanced model of ChatGPT (GPT-4).
Then, on May 1, 2023, Chegg held a conference call to discuss its results for the first quarter of 2023. On the call, Rosensweig stated that "since March, we saw a significant spike in student interest in ChatGPT. We now believe it's having an impact on our new customer growth."
On this news, Chegg's stock price fell $8.52 per share, or 48.41%, to close at $9.08 per share on May 2, 2023.
For more information on the Chegg investigation go to: https://bespc.com/cases/CHGG
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
