Cases filed since the beginning of 2017 represent more than 20% of all such cases filed since 1997.
More than 8% of U.S. public companies were hit with a shareholder class-action suit in 2017, a nine-year high.
Excluding actions against delinquent filers, the SEC filed 299 cases in the first half of fiscal 2017 — virtually unchanged from the year-ago period.
The aggregate $6 billion in settlement dollars last year was almost double the 2015 total.
The 43% increase in securities cases to 270 last year largely reflects "forum shopping" in the wake of a Delaware court ruling.
Plaintiff filings in federal courts are up 17%, and as many as 6% of S&P 500 companies could be the target of such suits this year.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is particularly focused on the subsidiaries of financial services firms.
The large number of settlements in 2015 reflected the fact that 189 new securities class actions were filed, the most since 2008.
2015 is on course to tie for the fifth-lowest number of class action filings in the past 19 years, a new report says.
Class-action lawsuits involving restatements of financials also reached a seven-year high in 2014, according to Cornerstone Research.
