In a Tenth Circuit securities class action, Gregg Edwards was retained by Plaintiff to opine on market efficiency and class-wide damages for Farmland Partners, Inc. common stock. On September 30, 2021, Senior Circuit Judge David M. Ebel issued an order granting in part Plaintiff’s motion to Certify the Class (the “Order”).
Crediting the results of Mr. Edwards’ event study analyses of earnings surprises and changes in analyst investment recommendations (which showed “…a less than 0.01% chance of this pattern of reactivity absent a cause-and-effect relationship”), the Court determined that “…Plaintiff has made a prima facie showing of market efficiency supporting class certification for the period on and after February 23, 2017.”
After finding the market for Farmland Partners, Inc. common stock to be efficient, the Court then considered various arguments by Defendants’ expert suggesting that the relevant stock-price reaction was more likely caused by confounding factors than by the revelation of the alleged fraud (i.e., no price impact). The Court, however, ultimately rejected Defendants’ expert’s arguments as unpersuasive and not being “sufficiently convincing to establish that the [corrective information] likely did not cause the loss.”
