DENVER (Legal Newsline) - Attorneys representing California's public pension want to lead a shareholder class action lawsuit against Palantir Technologies, an intelligence community software company that suffered a stock drop in May.
Robbins Geller filed a motion to consolidate similar cases and to be appointed lead counsel on Nov. 14 in Colorado federal court, pointing to its "extensive experience and proven track record."
Robbins Geller is representing the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which suffered more than $55 million in losses.
"To the best of its counsel's knowledge, there are no other plaintiffs with a larger financial interest," the motion says.
The Allegheny County Employees' Retirement System is a plaintiff in one of the other class actions against Palantir. Its case says Palantir builds and deploys software platforms for the U.S. intelligence community for counter-terrorism investigations and operations.
The plaintiffs claim that between February 2021 and May 2022, the defendants consistently claimed "geopolitical instability" such as armed conflicts, economic crises and the COVID-19 pandemic "as tailwinds for its business."
They allege the defendants made false and misleading statements about the company's operations and prospects including its investments in marketable securities and overstated its government segment growth and revenues. The plaintiffs further allege that the defendants artificially inflated the market price of Palantir securities, which led its stock price to fall 21.3% and close at $7.46 per share on May 9.
They also allege an article in The Motley Fool published on May 9 stated the company's stock drop "was a surprise to investors" because the company was expected to see higher demand for its defense-focused data services because of the war in Ukraine. They claim the defendants' actions caused them to suffer significant losses and damages.