Heartland Payment Systems, Inc.

Class Period: Aug 5, 2008 to Feb 23, 2009

Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 5, 2009 + Deadline passed

Summary of Case:

A securities class action has been filed against Heartland Payment Systems, Inc. (Ticker: HPY) ("Heartland" or the "Company") on behalf of securities purchasers from August 5, 2008 through February 23, 2009 (Class Period), in the United States District Court. 

The complaint alleges that throughout the Class Period, defendants made false and/or misleading statements and failed to disclose material adverse facts about Heartland's business, operations and prospects. Specifically, defendants misrepresented or failed to disclose: (1) that the Company's safety and security measures designed to protect consumers' financial records and data from security breaches were inadequate and ineffective; (2) that the Company's payment processing system had been infected with malware as early as May 2008; (3) that defendants were made aware of a potential breach of Heartland's payment processing network; (4) that, as a result of the above, the Company faced liabilities associated with the breach and increasing costs associated with implementing appropriate security measures; (5) that, as a result of the foregoing, the Company was at risk of losing customers; and (6) that the Company lacked adequate internal controls.  

On January 20, 2009, Heartland revealed that the Company's payment processing network had been breached by malicious software, exposing tens of millions of debit cardholders to fraud. As consumers used their debit cards, so-called "sniffer software" had been capturing, among other things, card numbers, expiration dates and cardholder names. According to an article published that same day in The New York Times, the breach occurred as early as May 2008.  

On this news, shares of Heartland declined $1.26 per share, or 8.16%, to close on January 20, 2009, at $14.18 per share, on unusually heavy volume. Over the next two days, shares of Heartland further declined $6.00 per share, or an additional 42.31%, to close on January 22, 2009 at $8.18 per share.  

On February 24, 2009, Heartland again shocked investors when it reported earnings for the 2008 fiscal year and fourth quarter. The Company posted a lower-than-expected quarterly profit and disclosed that it might incur losses from the recent security breach of its system and that the Company could not estimate the amount of losses that might be incurred in connection with the security breach.  

On this news, shares of Heartland declined $2.31 per share, or 30.12%, to close on February 24, 2009, at $5.34 per share, on unusually heavy volume. During the Class Period, shares of Heartland's common stock declined $21.84 per share, or approximately 80%, from its Class Period high of $27.19 per share on September 19, 2008.

If you purchased this company's shares during the Class Period and suffered a loss or for further information about the case, please review the links below.