NEW YORK, Feb. 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against YogaWorks, Inc. (“YogaWorks” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: YOGA) and certain of its officers and directors. The class action, filed in United States District Court, Central District of California, and indexed under 19-cv-00970, is on behalf of a class consisting of all behalf of persons and/or entities who purchased or otherwise acquired YogaWorks securities pursuant and/or traceable to the Company’s initial public offering commenced on or about August 10, 2017 and closed on August 16, 2017 (the “IPO”), seeking to recover compensable damages caused by Defendants’ violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 11, 12(a)(2), and 15 of the Securities Act of 1933 (the “Securities Act”) (the “Class”).
If you are a shareholder who purchased YogaWorks securities pursuant and/or traceable to the Company’s IPO, you have until February 25, 2019, to ask the Court to appoint you as Lead Plaintiff for the class. A copy of the Complaint can be obtained at www.pomerantzlaw.com . To discuss this action, contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 9980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
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YogaWorks, Inc. operates yoga studios under the YogaWorks and Yoga Tree brand names in the United States. It primarily provides yoga classes, workshops, teacher training programs, and yoga-related retail merchandise. The company offers online yoga instruction and programming services through its MyYogaWorks Web platform. As of May 10, 2018, it operated 69 locations.
On June 23, 2017, YogaWorks filed a registration statement on Form S-1 for a proposed initial public offering. The June 23, 2017 registration statement was followed by several amendments, the last of which was filed on August 10, 2017, which became effective that day (as amended, the “Registration Statement”).
On August 11, 2017, YogaWorks filed a Prospectus pursuant to Rule 424(b)(4) (the “Prospectus” and with the Registration Statement, the “Offering Materials”) with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
On August 16, 2017, YogaWorks completed its IPO within which it offered 7.3 million shares at $5.50 per share.
The Complaint alleges that YogaWorks' Registration Statement and Prospectus made materially misleading statements regarding: (1) YogaWorks' studio-level economics and the adverse trends it faced in declining studio profitability; (2) reasons for YogaWorks' declining revenue, including increasing corporate overhead costs; and (3) YogaWorks' increasing corporate infrastructure costs and inability to achieve economies of scale. As of December 27, 2018, YogaWorks' stock closed at $0.44 or 92% below its IPO price of $5.50.
On September 21, 2017, YogaWorks announced its second quarter financial results for the period ending June 30, 2017. YogaWorks reported net revenue of $12.5 million as compared to $13.3 million for the same period of the previous year, a net loss of $4.4 million, nearly double that of the same period of the previous year, and Studio-Level EBITDA of $2.2 million as compared to $2.6 million for the same period of the previous year. Although YogaWorks blamed the decline in net revenue on the shift from monthly memberships to class packages, deferred revenue only increased $0.5 million, while student visits, number of classes, and students per class were down quarter over quarter.
On this news, YogaWorks’ stock price dropped from $4.00 per share on September 21, 2017 to $3.53 per share on September 22, 2017, a drop of over 11%, and continued to decline to $2.83 per share on September 28, 2017 as investors reacted to the negative financials and growing losses.
On April 3, 2018, YogaWorks announced its financial results for the full year and fourth quarter of 2017 by filing an untimely annual report with the SEC on Form 10-K. The Form 10-K was filed along with a Form 12b-25 indicating that YogaWorks was unable to timely file its annual report “due to a delay in finalizing a goodwill impairment charge related to the book value of the Company, relative to the Company’s current market capitalization.” For 2017, YogaWorks recorded net revenue of $54.5 million (as compared to $55.1 million in 2016) and a net loss of $23.4 million—more than double the $9.5 million loss recorded in 2016. YogaWorks’ hand-picked non-GAAP metric Studio-Level EBITDA also declined from $12.4 million to $10.7 million.
Additionally, for the fourth quarter of 2017, YogaWorks recorded $454,000 in stock-based compensation expenses. This represented an increase from the $2,000 expenses recorded in the prior year and capped a fiscal year where the Company doled out nearly $2.6 million in stock-based compensation to management who oversaw the deterioration of YogaWorks’ financial condition.
For 2017, YogaWorks recorded a goodwill impairment charge of $7.5 million, which represented over one-third of its prior goodwill asset, “primarily due to projected cash flows and the Company’s decline in market capitalization since the launch of the IPO.”
On this news, YogaWorks’ stock price fell from $2.88 per share on April 2, 2018, to $2.35 per share on April 3, 2018—an 18.4% decline and over 50% below the IPO price.
On August 14, 2018, YogaWorks announced its financial results for the second quarter of 2018. YogaWorks reported a $2.4 million increase in net revenues over the same quarter of 2017, but a $2.3 million increase in net loss, despite the fact that YogaWorks raised its studio count during the quarter.
Making matters worse, YogaWorks again recorded a goodwill impairment during the second quarter of 2018, recording an additional $2.5 million impairment for the quarter.
On this news, YogaWorks’ stock price fell from $1.86 per share to close at $1.09 per share, or an additional 41%, on August 15, 2018.
On December 12, 2018, YogaWorks filed a Form 8-K with the SEC, announcing that on December 6, 2018, it received a letter from NASDAQ. The letter stated that the market value of the publicly held shares of YogaWorks for the prior thirty business days fell below the exchange’s $5 million minimum value and, thus, YogaWorks was subject to delisting if it was unable to regain compliance. YogaWorks then received another similar letter from NASDAQ on December 12, 2018, for its noncompliance with NASDAQ’s $1.00 minimum share price requirement.
On this news, YogaWorks’ share price fell from $0.64 per share to close at $0.59 per share on December 13, 2018, or over 6.5%.
As of February 5, 2019, YogaWorks’ shares were trading at $0.60, or approximately 90% below the IPO price.
The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Paris, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com
CONTACT: Robert S. Willoughby Pomerantz LLP rswilloughby@pomlaw.com 888-476-6529 ext. 9980
