NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Attorney Advertising--Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC, a nationally recognized law firm, notifies investors that a class action lawsuit has been filed against Shoals Technologies Group, Inc. (“Shoals” or “the Company”) (NASDAQ: SHLS) and certain of its officers.
Class Definition:
This lawsuit seeks to recover damages against Defendants for alleged violations of the federal securities laws on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired Shoals securities between May 17, 2022 and November 7, 2023, inclusive (the “Class Period”). Such investors are encouraged to join this case by visiting the firm’s site: bgandg.com/SHLS.
Case Details:
According to the Complaint, Shoals, based in Portland, Tennessee, purports to be a leading provider of electrical balance of system (“EBOS”) products for solar power generation, battery storage, and electric vehicle charging infrastructure. In the context of solar power generation, Shoals EBOS products encompass all of the components necessary to transport electric currents produced by solar panels to an inverter, allowing the current to be delivered to a power grid or an energy storage product.
In Shoals’ Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarter of 2023, filed with the SEC on May 8, 2023 (the “1Q23 10-Q”), investors were first informed of a potential issue involving “a subset of wire harnesses used in [Shoals’] EBOS solutions [] presenting excessive pull back of wire insulation at connection points,” which Shoals dubbed “shrinkback.” Shoals also sought to ease investors’ concerns by reporting that it had “substantially ceased use of the related wire.”
Then, on August 1, 2023, Shoals filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the second quarter of 2023 (“2Q23 10-Q”) with the SEC and held a conference call with analysts to discuss its results for the quarter. The 2Q23 10-Q disclosed that Shoals had recorded a warranty liability of $9.3 million related to the shrinkback issue. During the corresponding call with analysts, Oppenheimer analyst Colin Rusch asked Defendants to “talk a little bit about the wire issues . . . how extensive it was in terms of the number of customers and number of shipments and how much time it was spread over?” In response, Chief Financial Officer (“CFO”) Dominic Bardos stated, “We’ve communicated pretty much everything we can.” CFO Bardos also confirmed that “[t]he charge that we booked in the quarter we believe is adequate to do the remediation required, and that’s why we booked it.”
In reality, according to the Complaint, and as remained undisclosed to investors, Shoals learned of customers experiencing wire insulation shrinkback by no later than March 2022. For example, in March 2022, Shoals learned of exposed copper conduit resulting from shrinkback in EBOS wire harnesses at a customer’s solar field in Arizona. Indeed, throughout 2022, Shoals learned of numerous customers experiencing similar copper conduit exposure, or shrinkback. As investors belatedly found out, Shoals had installed defective wire harnesses in at least 300 solar fields. These harnesses represented approximately 30% of the total amount of Shoals harnesses manufactured between 2020 and 2022. As a result, Defendants’ positive statements about the Company’s financial guidance, business, operations, and prospects during the Class Period were materially false and/or misleading.
On November 7, 2023, Shoals stunned the market by revealing that the Company had been forced to take an additional $50.2 million charge for warranty expense as result of the wire shrinkback issue. Shoals further advised that it expected the wire shrinkback issue to cost between $59.7 million and $184.9 million dollars to remedy.
On this news, Shoals’ stock price fell more than 20%, from a closing price of $16.23 per share on November 7, 2023, to a closing price of $12.95 per share on November 9, 2023, wiping out approximately $550 million in market capitalization.
The Complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period the Company made materially false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects to make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which they were made, not false and misleading. Specifically, Defendants failed to disclose to investors that:
(1) Shoals did not deliver EBOS products that met the highest levels of quality and reliability;
(2) Shoals had received reports of exposed copper conduit in EBOS wire harnessess in a large number of solar fields and was aware that a significant portion of its wire harnesses had defects;
(3) Shoals would have to incur between $60 million to $185 million in costs to remediate the wire shrinkback issue; and
(4) Shoals had understated its cost of revenue by millions of dollars.
As a result, Shoals’ positive statements about the Company’s financial guidance, business, operations, and prospects were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.
What’s Next?
A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to review a copy of the Complaint, you can visit the firm’s site: bgandg.com/SHLS or you may contact Peretz Bronstein, Esq. or his Law Clerk and Client Relations Manager, Yael Nathanson of Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC at 332-239-2660. If you suffered a loss in Shoals you have until May 21, 2024, to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as lead plaintiff.
There is No Cost to You
We represent investors in class actions on a contingency fee basis. That means we will ask the court to reimburse us for out-of-pocket expenses and attorneys’ fees, usually a percentage of the total recovery, only if we are successful.
Why Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman:
Bronstein, Gewirtz & Grossman, LLC is a nationally recognized firm that represents investors in securities fraud class actions and shareholder derivative suits. Our firm has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for investors nationwide.
Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
