DENVER (Legal Newsline) - A Colorado federal judge is letting Robbins Geller lead a securities class action lawsuit against Palantir Technologies, an intelligence community software company that suffered a stock drop in May.
Having received no opposition from other potential lead plaintiffs, Judge Charlotte Sweeney on Dec. 6 approved California Public Employees' Retirement System's motion for consolidation of related actions and appointment as lead plaintiff.
Robbins Geller filed the motion Nov. 14 and will serve as lead counsel. It says CalPERS suffered more than $55 million in losses from Palantir's loss of stock value.
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.