National Vision Holdings, Inc.
Lead Plaintiff Deadline 03/28/2023
The law firm of Kirby McInerney LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia on behalf of those who acquired National Vision Holdings, Inc. (“National Vision” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: EYE) securities between May 13, 2021 through May 9, 2022 (the “Class Period”). Investors have until March 28, 2023 to apply to the Court to be appointed as lead plaintiff in the lawsuit.
National Vision operates as an optical retailer, which provides eye exams, eyeglasses, and contact lenses.
On November 10, 2021, National Vision issued a release that announced the Company’s financial results for the third quarter of 2021, tightening the Company’s sales and revenue outlook towards the upper end of the previously issued 2021 guidance without changing the Company’s earnings outlook, indicating that National Vision was suffering from a substantial deterioration in profit margins during the fourth quarter of 2021. On the same day, National Vision held an earnings call with analysts and investors, during which Defendant Patrick Moore, the Chief Financial Officer and senior vice president, admitted that the “lower Q4 profitability” was not due to unforeseen circumstances, but rather in substantial part “due to the impact of the wage investments implemented earlier this year.” On this news, the price of National Vision shares declined by $8.30 per share, or approximately 13.07%, from $63.52 per share to close at $55.22 on November 10, 2021.
On May 10, 2022, National Vision issued deeply disappointing financial and operational results for its first fiscal quarter of 2022. Notably, the revised projections indicated that the Company was actually performing worse in terms of profits and earnings than before the pandemic. On this news, the price of National Vision shares declined by $8.64 per share, or approximately 25.74%, from $33.57 per share to close at $24.93 on May 10, 2023.
The lawsuit alleges that, throughout the Class Period, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements, as well as failed to disclose that: (a) National Vision was experiencing extraordinary wage and labor pressures as a result of intense competition and disruptions in the labor market due to the COVID-19 pandemic; b) National Vision had suffered a severe optometrist shortage in the first quarter of 2022; (c) the lack of sufficient optometrists to meet customer demand had created an acute exam capacity constraint; and (d) as a result of (a)-(c) above, the Company was suffering from a decline in net revenue and adjusted comparable store sales (“CSS”) during the first quarter of 2022.