SentinelOne, Inc. (S) Lacked Effective Controls Over Accounting and Financial Reporting

A shareholder filed a class action on behalf of all persons and entities that purchased or otherwise acquired SentinelOne, Inc. (NYSE: S) securities between June 1, 2022 and June 1, 2023. SentinelOne is a cybersecurity company that claims to have pioneered the world’s first AI-powered Extended Detection and Response (“XDR”) platform to make cybersecurity defense truly autonomous.

According to the complaint, throughout the class period, defendants failed to disclose: (1) that the Company lacked effective internal controls over accounting and financial reporting; (2) that, as a result, the Company’s Annualized Recurring Revenue [ARR] was overstated; (3) that, as a result, the Company’s guidance was overstated; and (4) that, as a result of the foregoing, Defendant’s positive statements about the Company’s business, operations, and prospects were materially misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis.  

On June 1, 2023, SentinelOne published a press release titled “SentinelOne Announces First Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results.” Therein, the Company disclosed that “[a]s a result of a change in methodology and correction of historical inaccuracies, which we further describe in our letter to shareholders, we made a one-time adjustment to ARR of $27.0 million or approximately 5% of total ARR.” The Company also revised its fiscal year 2024 revenue guidance downward to a range of $590 million to $600 million from a range of $631 million to $640 million.

In a shareholder letter published the same day, SentinelOne further explained that “we . . . discovered historical upsell and renewal recording inaccuracies relating to ARR on certain subscription and consumption contracts, which are now corrected” and that “[w]e are applying a comparable estimated adjustment to the remaining quarters in fiscal year 23, which we believe is a reasonable approximation of the impact in those periods.”  On this news, SentinelOne’s stock price fell $7.28 per share, or more than 35%, to close at $13.44 per share on June 2, 2023.

What Now: Similarly situated shareholders may be eligible to participate in the class action against SentinelOne, Inc. Shareholders who want to act as lead plaintiff for the class must file their papers by August 7, 2023. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.  You do not have to participate in the case to be eligible for a recovery. If you choose to take no action, you can remain an absent class member.

All representation is on a contingency fee basis. Shareholders pay no fees or expenses.