PricewaterhouseCoopers publishes an annual survey of securities litigation, and it has just released its 2003 Securities Litigation Study. As usual, the review contains a number of interesting findings, including the following:
107 of the 175 securities class action filed in 2003 were accounting-related. In more than half of those cases, the primary allegation related to revenue recognition issues;
The percentage of cases with pension funds as lead plaintiffs has grown steadily from less than 3% in 1996 to over 28% of the cases in 2003;
Average settlements for all cases was up 20% from 2002, and there were more large settlements, including six greater than than $100 million;
After 2002 saw over 40 “triple jeopardy” cases in which companies were subject to securities class actions along with parallel SEC and Justice Department investigations, the number of those cases dropped to eight in 2003, which is above average.
Hat tip to Lyle Roberts over at the 10B-5 Daily for the link to the PwC report.