Law firms specializing in class action shareholder lawsuits are circling around Jacksonville-based Redwire as it continues to delay filing its third-quarter earnings — with the company entering the period it typically would release earnings for Q4. Prior to the space tech company's Q3 filing date in early November, an employee alerting executives that there were potential accounting issues at a business subunit. In response, the company said it launched an internal review and engaged outside legal and accounting services to complete an independent investigation. Before news of the delay was announced in November, shares in Redwire were trading around $13. The stock price has been on a steady decline since then, bottoming out at $4.86 on Jan. 28. The stock closed Monday at $5.87 a share. The price has been slightly rising since Feb. 3, when the company released preliminary financial results for last year, saying it expects to generate between $135 million and $140 million in total GAAP revenue for 2021 — 160% growth. Meanwhile, at least seven law firms have said they'll be filing class action lawsuits against the company, saying there were material weaknesses in Redwire’s internal control over financial reporting and that, as a result, the company's positive statements about the its business, operations and prospects were misleading. “We’re focused on investors’ losses and proving Redwire manipulated its financial results to deceive investors,” said Reed Kathrein of Hagens Berman, which is planning one of the suits. Redwire denies any wrongdoing, adding that the investigations has uncovered no material misstatements by the company. “The Board of Directors and the entire Redwire team take very seriously the values of accuracy and compliance in the preparation of our financial statements,” Redwire Chairman and CEO Peter Cannito said. “We look forward to continuing to position Redwire for success in the long term. Our vision for humanity’s expansion into space extends into the next decade and beyond.” In reporting its preliminary results last week, the company focused on things like the deployment of two of its Roll-Out Solar Arrays and said that it has between $133 million and $138 million of contracted work and another $136 million to $138 million of work that it anticipates receiving in contract extensions or work that has been contracted but not appropriated.
