October 9, 2026 Symbotic Hid Contractor’s Delays From Investors, Suit Says
By Katryna Perera
Law360 (October 9, 2026, 9:34 PM EDT) — The top brass of warehouse robotics company Symbotic Inc. has been sued in Delaware Chancery Court by a shareholder who claims they hid problems with a contractor, including project delays and major cost overruns, that later forced the company to restate its financials and caused its share price to drop.
Plaintiff Dexter Dockery, a Symbotic shareholder, filed suit against the company’s CEO, Richard Cohen, two former chief financial officers, and several other executives and directors.
According to a public, redacted version of the complaint filed on Thursday, Symbotic uses artificial intelligence-enabled robotics technology to provide retail and wholesale customers with warehouse and distribution center solutions, including building out logistics systems.
Symbotic outsources the construction of these systems to Fluor Corp., which handles the construction process from the beginning through deployment of the system to the customer, the complaint states.
Dockery says Symbotic’s deployment schedules and progression are considered highly material information to analysts and investors in the valuation of the company.
Between November 2023 and February 2025, Dockery claims the defendants knew that Fluor was “failing badly, causing widespread project delays and enormous, unrecoverable cost overruns that could not be recovered from clients under the contracts.”
But the complaint states that the defendants hid these issues from the investing public and misrepresented the adverse effect the problems had on Symbotic. Specifically, the complaint says the defendants hid stagnant deployment times caused by Fluor’s failure to perform its contractual obligations and improperly recognized cost overruns as revenue even after Symbotic’s customer contracts forced the company to absorb the full cost overruns.
These misrepresentations inflated Symbotic’s stock price, Dockery says, adding that Cohen took “full advantage” of the inflation by selling 5 million Symbotic shares in February 2024, gaining roughly $191.6 million in proceeds.
According to the complaint, Cohen sold the stock after making misleading statements to analysts and, during the same period, advised an employee, who later served as a confidential witness in a parallel securities class action, to hide the true length of the deployment delays.
The complaint further states that other directors and officers also made insider stock sales during the relevant period. The complaint says the truth began to emerge in July 2024 through a “series of devastating partial disclosures.”
“First, an admission of ‘elongated construction schedules,’ then a sweeping, multi-quarter financial restatement to reverse the improperly booked revenue, and finally, the admission that deployment times had never improved, but were ‘still averaging 24 months,'” the complaint states. “With each revelation, Symbotic’s stock collapsed, erasing hundreds of millions in shareholder value.”
Specifically, the complaint states that Symbotic’s stock price fell by roughly 23%, from $35.63 per share on July 29, 2024, to $27.25 per share on July 30, 2024.
Following the disclosures, Dockery says Symbotic was forced to restate its revenue and income for three quarters in 2024. The securities class action against Symbotic in Massachusetts federal court is ongoing.
Dockery’s suit seeks damages, attorney fees and reforms and improvements to Symbotic’s corporate governance and internal procedures.
Representatives for the parties did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Dockery is represented by P. Bradford deLeeuw of deLeeuw Law LLC, Lee Squitieri of Squitieri & Fearon LLP and Fletcher Moore of Moore Law PLLC.
Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.
The case is Dexter Dockery v. Richard B. Cohen et al., case number 2026-1302, in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.
–Editing by Linda Voorhis.