US securities class actions saw the median settlement amount hit an almost three-decade high in 2025 amid a jump in the value of cases related to IPO filing statements, according to Cornerstone Research.
The report – Securities Class Action Settlements 2025 Review and Analysis – showed that median settlements rose to $17.3m last year, 20% higher than in 2024 and the most since 1997. This increase was attributed in part to cases that only involve claims under the Securities Act of 1933, which stem from alleged misstatements or omissions in registration statements associated with IPOs or other securities offerings.
While 1933 act cases only represented 12% of all settled cases last year, the median amount for 1933 act-related cases hit a record high $32.5m.
Dr Laarni Bulan, vice president at Cornerstone Research and one of the authors of the report, said: “The ’33 act-only cases were associated with a record high median number of docket entries – a proxy for the time and effort expended by the litigants and/or case complexity, factors that could explain these larger settlements.”
While those cases pushed the overall median settlement amount higher, there were fewer total settlements in 2025, declining to 74 – a 16% drop from 2024. The average dollar settlement amount also fell by 7% to $40.6m due to fewer ‘mega-settlements’, those valued at $100m or more. The median settlement amount is the middle value of all settlements, while the average is a measure of the total settlement value divided by the number of settlements.
Meanwhile, median plaintiff-style damages – a proxy for the potential losses investors may claim in a securities class action with Rule10b-5 claims – were flat compared to 2024 ($16m), while median statutory damages in 1933 act-only cases fell 19%. Median time to settlement remained elevated at 3.5 years, the data showed.
The number of special purpose acquisition company (SPAC)-related settlements also declined by 19% to just nine in 2025.
Eric Tam, a principal at Cornerstone Research and another co-author of the report, said: “We also observe a shift of settlement dollars from the healthcare and financials/real estate sectors to the communication services/information technology sectors in recent years that may reflect changes in case filing trends.”
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