NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2020 / Pomerantz LLP announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed against eHealth, Inc. ("eHealth" or the "Company") (NASDAQ:EHTH) and certain of its officers. The class action, filed in United States District Court for the Northern District of California, and indexed under 20-cv-02967, is on behalf of a class consisting of all persons and entities other than Defendants who purchased or otherwise acquired: eHealth securities between March 19, 2018, and April 7, 2020, both dates inclusive (the "Class Period"), seeking to recover damages caused by Defendants' violations of the federal securities laws and to pursue remedies under Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") and Rule 10b-5 promulgated thereunder, against the Company and certain of its top officials.
If you are a shareholder who purchased eHealth securities during the class period, you have until June 8, 2020, 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 [email protected] or 888.476.6529 (or 888.4-POMLAW), toll-free, Ext. 7980. Those who inquire by e-mail are encouraged to include their mailing address, telephone number, and the number of shares purchased.
[Click here for information about joining the class action]
eHealth is a health insurance marketplace with a technology and service platform that provides consumer engagement, education, and health insurance enrollment solutions.
The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, Defendants made materially false and misleading statements regarding the Company's business, operational, and compliance policies. Specifically, Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) eHealth utilized highly aggressive accounting and modeling assumptions; (ii) eHealth faced a skyrocketing rate of member churn, resulting from the Company's pursuit of low quality, lossmaking growth; (iii) eHealth relied heavily on direct response television advertising, which attracts an unprofitable, high churn enrollee; and (iv) as a result, Defendants' public statements were materially false and/or misleading at all relevant times.
On April 8, 2020, pre-market, analyst Muddy Waters Research published a report in which it wrote that "EHTH's highly aggressive accounting masks what we believe is a significantly unprofitable business." Muddy Waters continued that "EHTH's persistence assumptions in its long term value ("LTV") model seem highly aggressive when compared to reality," that "[a]fter ASC 606 went into effect, member churn immediately skyrocketed," and that "EHTH is pursuing low quality, lossmaking growth while its LTVs are based on lower churn, pre-growth cohorts." Furthermore, Muddy Waters concluded that "the key driver of growth since 2018 has been EHTH's reliance on Direct Response television advertising, which attracts an unprofitable, high churn enrollee. To generate this unprofitable growth, EHTH has been incinerating cash, which we expect to continue to do until this value destruction slows down or stops. EHTH management is, in our view, running a massive stock promotion."
On this news, eHealth's stock price fell $12.82 per share, or approximately 12%, to close at $103.20 per share on April 8, 2020.
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.
SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP