There often is more to data than meets the eye – and the recently released annual report prepared by Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse is a case in point.
Securities Class Action Filings 2013 Year in Review is an authoritative source of data and expert analysis on financial and economic characteristics of the securities class action filings.
Amid its plethora of interesting numbers and factoids, some key statistics stand out*:
- Plaintiffs filed 166 new federal class action securities cases
- Companies in the healthcare, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries combined accounted for 21% of the total filings
- Total Disclosure Dollar Loss (DDL) of $104 billion increased 7 percent, but still 17 percent below historical average
- Maximum Dollar Loss (MDL) decreased significantly in 2013, falling to its lowest level since 1998
- Rule 10b-5 claims continued at heightened rates
- Median lag time between the end of the alleged class period and the filing date of the lawsuit was among the shortest observed
Cornerstone’s report assigns some useful perspective on the trends and numbers it reports on. Despite a 9% overall increase in filings in 2013, for instance, the number of filings remains 13% below the historical average from 1997 to 2012. Why? Cornerstone’s analysis reveals that a simultaneous 46% decline in the number of companies listed on the NYSE and NASDAQ exchanges may be a viable explanation for the consistently lower number of security class action filings.
That number, the report indicates, may be changing – based on a statistic that may, at first glance, appear unrelated: the 150 IPOs on major US exchanges in 2013 is nearly seven times the number of IPOs in 2008. The increase, notes the report, “may influence an increase in class action filings in the future.”
These examples of the trends and analyses reflect the wealth of information contained within the Cornerstone Research report. Discover the top securities class action filing trends from 2013 – and how they will influence the market – and your organization – in 2014.
* Source: Securities Class Action Filings 2013 Year in Review, Cornerstone Research and the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse.