American athletic apparel company Under Armour on Monday agreed to pay $9 million to settle charges by US financial regulators that it misled investors about its revenues.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said that for six quarters from the third quarter of 2015 through 2016, Under Armour inflated sales to meet analysts' expectations.
Faced with missing those revenue targets, the company pulled forward $408 million in orders customers had requested for future quarters, the SEC said in a statement.
Under Armour, which sponsors American football player Tom Brady, boxer Anthony Joshua and basketball player Stephen Curry, then attributed that revenue growth to "various factors" without telling investors about the "accelerated" orders.
"By using pull forwards for several consecutive quarters to meet analysts' revenue targets while attributing its revenue growth to other factors, Under Armour created a misleading picture of the drivers of its financial results and concealed known uncertainties concerning its business," Kurt Gottschall, director of the SEC's Denver office, said in a statement.
Under Armour said the settlement resolves the charges from the American financial regulator and "the company neither admitted nor denied the SEC's charges," it said in a statement.
Under Armour also agreed to "other non-monetary settlement terms," without elaborating.
The company's stock was up 0.6 percent after the close.
Copyright AFP. All rights reserved.