2nd Fraud Complaint in 2 Months Alleges Apple Duped Investors on Holiday Revenue

A California man who bought 40 Apple shares in November for roughly $8,200 seeks class-action status in a securities-fraud complaint that alleges the iPhone maker duped investors about its poor revenue performance in 2018's holiday quarter and caused the stock to tank when the deception was revealed in early January. Priyam Reddy bought 20 Apple shares Nov. 2 at $210.82 a share and another 20 shares three days later at $200.96, said the complaint (in Pacer) Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. He was among a class of shareholders similarly harmed when CEO Tim Cook and Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri “engaged in a scheme to deceive the market and a course of conduct that artificially inflated the price” of the stock, it said. Apple “shocked the market” when Cook disclosed in a Jan. 2 shareholder letter that the company would miss its holiday-quarter revenue target by up to $9 billion, it said. “This news caused the market price of Apple common stock to plunge” the next trading day to the 52-week low of $142.19 a share, said the complaint, the second such lawsuit filed against Apple in as many months (see 1904170016). Reddy and other potential class members “have suffered significant losses and damages” as the result of “Defendants’ wrongful acts and omissions, and the precipitous decline in the market value of Apple’s securities,” it said. Apple didn’t comment. The stock since recovered to a high of $211.75 on May 3.Shares closed up 1.2 percent Wednesday at $190.92.