Lawsuit filed for Investors who lost money with shares in Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF)

An investor, who purchased shares of Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF), filed a lawsuit over alleged violations of Federal Securities Laws by Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. in connection with certain allegedly false and misleading statements.

Investors who purchased shares of Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) have certain options and for certain investors are short and strict deadlines running. Deadline: August 29, 2025. NASDAQ: WOOF investors should contact the Shareholders Foundation at mail@shareholdersfoundation.com or call +1(858) 779 - 1554.

San Diego, CA based Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc., operates as a health and wellness company, focuses on enhancing the lives of pets, pet parents, and its Petco partners in the United States, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. One of Petco's key business metrics is comparable sales-also referred to as same-store sales or "comp"-which measures the change in period-over-period net sales from physical locations and digital sites that have been open for the applicable period.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) consistently touted the benefits of pandemic-related tailwinds on its growth and profitability, including comparable sales growth, as a result of increased rates of pet adoption, while also touting the purported sustainability of these tailwinds post-pandemic. Additionally, at all relevant times, Petco consistently touted its transformation from a general pet retailer into a more health-focused pet company-particularly its ability to capitalize on ongoing purported "pet humanization" and "premiumization" trends. According to Petco, these trends were driven by an increase in younger, more health-conscious consumers becoming pet owners, who were purportedly more prone to treat pets more like humans than property and, accordingly, invest more in healthy, premium pet products. Petco represented that it was uniquely positioned to capitalize on the foregoing trends and drive sustainable, profitable growth based on its purported differentiated business strategy centered around, inter alia, healthy, premium pet foods containing no artificial ingredients.

In March 2023, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) issued financial guidance for its fiscal full year ("FY") 2023, including adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("EBITDA") of $520 million to $540 million and adjusted earnings per share ("EPS") of $0.40 to $0.48.

On August 24, 2023, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced its financial results for the second quarter of its FY 2023. Therein, the Company negatively revised its FY 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $460 million to $480 million-down significantly from its prior guidance of $520 million to $540 million-and adjusted EPS guidance to a range of $0.24 to $0.30-down significantly from its prior guidance of $0.40 to $0.48. In explaining the negatively revised guidance, Company management cited a "shift in consumer spending and pressures on our discretionary business[.]"

On November 29, 2023, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced its financial results for the third quarter of its FY 2023. Therein, the Company again negatively revised its fiscal FY 2023 adjusted EBITDA guidance to approximately $400 million-down significantly from its prior guidance of $460 million to $480 million-and adjusted EPS guidance to approximately $0.08-down significantly from its prior guidance of $0.24 to $0.30. In the same press release, Company management revealed that Petco had broadened its product offerings to include "value"-i.e., cheaper, lower-quality-pet food brands in an effort to improve sales.

On March 13, 2024, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced that Ronald V. Coughlin, Jr. had stepped down as Petco's Chief Executive Officer, Chairman, and member of the Company's Board of Directors (the "Board").

The same day, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced its financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and FY 2023, reporting, inter alia, that "[c]omparable sales declined 0.9 percent year over year" in the quarter, as well as a "GAAP net loss of $1.3 billion, or $(4.78) per share, which includes goodwill impairment of $1.2B[.]" On a subsequent investor conference call held the same day, Company management acknowledged that Petco's business model focused on premium products was, in fact, not sustainable as it could not weather ongoing consumer preference trends towards cheaper goods for their pets.

On April 9, 2024, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) filed a current report on Form 8-K with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, disclosing that the Company's Board "approved the termination of employment of Darren MacDonald, the Company's Chief Customer Officer, effective as of April 12, 2024[.]"

On May 28, 2024, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced further "changes to [its] leadership team [to] accelerate Petco's initiatives to drive retail excellence as we execute on our operational reset," including the departures of the Company's Chief Operating and Chief Merchandising and Supply Chain Officers.

On February 18, 2025, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced that its then-Chief Financial Officer, Defendant Brian LaRose, had stepped down from this role.

Then, on June 5, 2025, Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) announced its financial results for the first quarter of its FY 2025, including, inter alia, a 1.3% year-over-year decline in comparable sales-much larger than the 0.6% decline estimated by Wall Street. Multiple analysts also expressed concerns with Petco's diminishing comparable sales and market share in the wake of Defendants' profitability-focused turnaround plan.

Shares of Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) declined from $31.08 per share on January 14, 2021, to as low as $1.414 per share on April 25, 2024.

The plaintiff claims that between January 14, 2021 and June 5, 2025, the Defendants made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that Petco's pandemic-related tailwinds were unsustainable, as was its business model of selling primarily premium and/or high-grade pet food, that accordingly, the strength of Petco's differentiated product strategy was overstated, that Defendants downplayed the true scope and severity of the foregoing issues, the magnitude of changes needed to rectify those issues, and the likely negative impacts of their mitigation strategy on Petco's comparable sales metric, that accordingly, Defendants overstated Petco's ability to deliver sustainable, profitable growth, and that as a result, Defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

Those who purchased shares of Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (NASDAQ: WOOF) have certain options and should contact the Shareholders Foundation.

Contact:
Michael Daniels
Shareholders Foundation, Inc.
3111 Camino Del Rio North
Suite 423
San Diego, CA 92108
Tel: +1-(858)-779-1554
E-Mail: mail@shareholdersfoundation.com

About Shareholders Foundation, Inc.
The Shareholders Foundation, Inc. is a professional portfolio monitoring and settlement claim filing service, and an investor advocacy group, which does research related to shareholder issues and informs investors of securities lawsuits, settlements, judgments, and other legal related news to the stock/financial market. Shareholders Foundation, Inc. is in contact with a large number of shareholders and offers help, support, and assistance for every shareholder. The Shareholders Foundation, Inc. is not a law firm. Referenced cases, investigations, and/or settlements are not filed/initiated/reached and/or are not related to Shareholders Foundation. The information is provided as a public service. It is not intended as legal advice and should not be relied upon.

This release was published on openPR.