Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP Files Class Action Suit Against Tyson Foods, Inc.

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Nov 28, 2016, 07:26 ET

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 28, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP ("Robbins Geller") (http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/tyson/) today announced that a class action has been commenced on behalf of purchasers of Tyson Foods, Inc. ("Tyson") (NYSE:TSN) common stock during the period between November 23, 2015 and November 18, 2016 (the "Class Period"). This action was filed in the Western District of Arkansas and is captioned Voellinger v. Tyson Foods, Inc., et al., No. 16-5340-TLB.

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than 60 days from October 17, 2016. If you wish to discuss this action or have any questions concerning this notice or your rights or interests, please contact plaintiff's counsel, Darren Robbins of Robbins Geller at 800/449-4900 or 619/231-1058, or via e-mail at [email protected]. If you are a member of this class, you can view a copy of the complaint as filed at http://www.rgrdlaw.com/cases/tyson/. Any member of the putative class may move the Court to serve as lead plaintiff through counsel of their choice, or may choose to do nothing and remain an absent class member.

The complaint charges Tyson and certain of its officers and directors with violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Tyson purports to be one of the world's largest food companies and a recognized market leader in chicken, beef and pork production.

The complaint alleges that throughout and before the Class Period, defendants engaged in a scheme to defraud and made numerous materially false and misleading statements and omissions regarding Tyson's business and operations, including: (a) falsely stating that the Company's products, including chicken, compete against other suppliers on price and other variables; (b) falsely describing the markets in which the Company sells chicken as "intensely competitive"; (c) falsely ascribing Tyson's strong margins in the sale of chickens to changes the Company had made in its business strategies; and (d) concealing the true reason for Tyson's high margins and profits from the sale of chickens. As a result of these false statements and/or omissions, the price of Tyson common stock was artificially inflated, reaching a high of $76.76 per share during the Class Period.

On or about September 2, 2016, a class action complaint detailing a price-fixing conspiracy in violation of antitrust laws by Tyson and other chicken producers, Maplevale Farms Inc. v. Koch Foods Inc., et al., No. 16-cv-08637 (the "Maplevale Complaint"), was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The Maplevale Complaint described Tyson's anticompetitive conduct and antitrust violations in detail, including: (a) a history of antitrust conspiracies in the broiler chicken ("broiler") industry, including weekly conference calls in the 1970s to discuss production levels and prices for broilers that led to lawsuits by the Department of Justice and civil plaintiffs; (b) starting in 2008, coordinated decreases in production across the industry in the face of inelastic demand and falling input costs; (c) extensive information sharing through Agri Stats, Inc., an industry data aggregator; (d) numerous opportunities to collude in a variety of forums; (e) a coordinated change from contracts with fixed broiler prices to broiler prices that float with the broiler spot market; (f) inter-defendant trades and purchases that were often against independent self-interest; and (g) multiple industry characteristics that facilitated collusion, such as high vertical integration, high barriers to entry, high broiler industry consolidation and concentration, inelastic supply and demand, and a lack of significant substitutes for broilers.

On October 7, 2016, Pivotal Research Group published a report stating that after reviewing the allegations made in the Maplevale Complaint, which it found compelling, it was reducing its price target for Tyson from $100 to just $40 and cutting its rating from BUY to SELL. Following these revelations, Tyson's stock price fell 9%, from a closing price of $74.38 per share on October 6, 2016 to a closing price of $67.75 per share on October 7, 2016. Then on November 18, 2016, Tyson announced that its CEO had resigned. On this news, the price of Tyson stock fell another 14%, to close at $57.60 per share on November 21, 2016.

Plaintiff seeks to recover damages on behalf of all purchasers of Tyson common stock during the Class Period (the "Class"). The plaintiff is represented by Robbins Geller, which has extensive experience in prosecuting investor class actions including actions involving financial fraud.

Robbins Geller is widely recognized as one of the leading law firms advising U.S. and international institutional investors in securities litigation and portfolio monitoring. With 200 lawyers in 10 offices, Robbins Geller has obtained many of the largest securities class action recoveries in history and was ranked first in both total amount recovered for investors and number of securities class action recoveries in ISS's SCAS Top 50 Report for the last two years. Robbins Geller attorneys have shaped the law in the areas of securities litigation and shareholder rights and have recovered tens of billions of dollars on behalf of the Firm's clients. Robbins Geller not only secures recoveries for defrauded investors, it also strives to implement corporate governance reforms, helping to improve the financial markets for investors worldwide. Please visit rgrdlaw.com/cases/tyson/ for more information.

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SOURCE Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP