New securities class action lawsuits in the first half of 2025 were filed at a pace that projects to a year-end total number of filings level with 2024’s full-year total.

According to my tally, there were 111 federal court securities class action lawsuit filing in the year’s first six months. (Please note that these figures do not include state court securities class action lawsuit filings.) The first-half filings, if annualized for the full twelve months of the year, suggest a year-end total number of filings of 222, even with the 2024 full year total of 222, and ahead of the 213 securities suits filed in full-year 2023. The 111 filings in the first half of 2025 is slightly ahead of the 109 filings in the first half of 2024.

Certain factors that have contributed significantly to the number of filings in recent years were also key factors in the number of filings in the first-half of 2025. For example, there were nine AI-related securities suit filings in the first six months of 2025, compared to 15 AI-related filings for the full-year 2024. There were six crypto-related filings in the 2025 first-half, compared to eight for the full-year 2024. There were five SPAC-related filings in the first-half of 2025, compared to eleven for the full-year 2024. Other factors that contributed to the numbers of filings in prior years were not as significant in the first-half of 2025; for example, while there were 16 COVID-related securities suits filings in the full year 2024, there was only two COVID-related filing in the first six months of 2025.

The securities suits filed in the first-half of 2025 were filed against companies in a wide variety of industries. The first-half 2025 securities suits were filed against companies in 50 different SIC Code categories. Interestingly, there were eleven first-half 2025 securities suit filings in which the defendant firms had no SIC codes (mostly crypto companies, companies conducting private offering, or asset management firms).

The SIC Code category with the highest number of first-half 2025 federal court securities class action filings was SIC Code Category 2834 (Pharmaceutical Preparations), which had 18 securities suit filings. The category with the next highest number of first-half filings was SIC Code Category 7372 (Prepackaged Software), which had nine first-half 2025 filings, followed by SIC Code Category 3674 (Semiconductors and Related Devices), which had five first-half 2025 filings.

Two industry groups stood out in particular for the number of first-half 2025 filings. Industry Group 283 (Drugs) had a total of 23 first-half 2025 filings, representing about 21% of all first-half 2025 filings. Industry Group 737 (Computer Programming and Data Processing) had a total of 19 first-half 2025 filings, representing about 17% of all first- half 2025 filings. These two industry groups together accounted for 42 first-half 2025 filings, or more nearly 38% of all first-half 2025 filings.

The first-half 2025 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings were filed in a number of different federal district courts; by my count, securities suits were first-filed in a total of 28 different federal district courts during the year’s first-half. The federal district court with the most first-filed securities class action lawsuits in the first-half of 2025 was the Southern District of New York, which had 23 securities suit filings in the first six months of the year. The federal district with the next highest number of first-filed securities suits was the Northern District of California, which had 12 first-half 2025 filings, followed by the District of New Jersey, which had 11 first-half 2025 filings.

The federal courts in the state of New York and California taken collectively saw a significant percentage of the total number of first-filed securities suits in the first half of 2025. The various federal district courts in the state of New York had a total of 31 of the first-filed lawsuits filed in the first six months of 2025. The various federal courts in the state of California had a total of 21 of the first-filed lawsuits filed in the first six months of 2025. The federal district courts in these two states take collectively together accounted for 52 of the first-filed securities suits filed in the first six months of 2025, representing more than 47% of all first-half 2025 securities suit filings.

In prior years, merger objection class action lawsuit filings were a significant factor in the overall annual number of federal court securities suit filings. However, in the first six months of 2025, class action merger objection lawsuit filings were barely a factor; by my tally, there were a total of only two federal court merger objection lawsuit filings in the year’s first half. (Please note that the merger objection lawsuits are still being filed in significant numbers, but they are being filed as individual actions rather than class actions, and so do not show up in the class action lawsuit filings statistics.)

Of the 111 first half 2025 federal court securities class action lawsuit filings, 16 involved non-U.S. defendant companies. The 16 suits against non-U.S. companies involved companies from eight different countries. The countries with the most first half 2025 securities suits were Canada, with six; the U.K., with three; and Israel, with two.

Consistent with the relatively low level of IPO activity since 2022, there were relatively few IPO-related securities class action lawsuits filed in the first-half of 2025. By my count, there was a total of five IPO-related securities suits filed in the 2025 first-half. The IPO companies named as defendants completed their IPOs in 2023 (one company); 2024 (three companies); and 2025 (one company).

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