If you own or have been watching Applied Optoelectronics Inc (NASDAQ:AAOI) for any length of time, then you almost certainly already know AAOI stock took a 34% tumble in early August. Though the second quarter results released on Aug. 3 were impressive, its third quarter guidance spooked the market — and then some.

The story? A major buyer of its fiberoptic networking equipment — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) — is no longer using Applied Optoelectronics’ hardware. Rather, this huge customer will be seeking an alternative solution as it continues to expand its server warehousing footprint.

The stock-punishing fear more or less makes sense. A wide swath of revenue, and therefore earnings, is going away. The ensuing lawsuits, superficially anyway, make a little sense. Applied Optoelectronics’ management should have given owners of AAOI stock a little more warning, or at least fully disclosed the potential risks.

If you’re an AAOI shareholder and think the class action lawsuit is going to do you any meaningful amount of good, though, think again.

Not Worth the Trouble

You can’t throw a rock and not hit an attorney who isn’t somehow latching onto the developing lawsuit. The Law Offices of Vincent Wong is the most recent arrival to the party, announcing on Friday it would be happy to represent Applied Optoelectronics shareholders who felt wronged by the company’s management. Wong’s public notice reads like all the others (in almost boilerplate fashion):

“the Company issued materially false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) a major customer was reducing its purchases of the Company’s 40G receivers; (2) the loss of this major customer’s business would have a severe negative impact on the Company’s financial performance; and (3) as a result, the Company’s public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.”

To some holders of AAOI stock, this might seem like a reasonable option. However, the track record — in terms of actually reimbursing investors for their losses — of stock-drop suits is rather dismal.

Take, for instance, the 2009 class action lawsuit levied by Bank of America Corp (NYSE:BAC) stockholders against the bank itself after shares tanked in the wake of the subprime crisis. Of the $50 billion worth of market cap BofA lost at the time, the class action suit was only awarded $5 billion in restitution. Once all the attorney’s fees were paid, shareholders were only able to divvy up $2.4 billion among themselves — less than five cents for each dollar investors lost.

And, sadly, that’s a pretty typical outcome for most investor class action lawsuits.

Uh, Applied Optoelectronics Did Warn Investors

Be that as it may, while most stock-drop lawsuits don’t really help a lot, this particular one may be an especially fruitless non-starter.

The call for a class action suit is predicated on the notion that the company’s management failed to warn shareholders that Amazon was likely to look at other suppliers. And that, if Amazon did indeed select another supplier, it could have a surprising and unexpected adverse impact on Applied Optoelectronics’ top and bottom lines.

But there’s a problem: Applied Optoelectronics did caution investors of this possibility.

It may only be a technicality, but it’s a very important technicality from a judge and jury’s point of view. That is, in all of the recent quarterly filings with the SEC, the company made it clear:

“We generate much of our revenue from a limited number of customers. In 2016, 2015 and 2014 and the three months ended March 31, 2017, our top ten customers represented 95.5%, 88.7%, 87.2% and 96.7% of our revenue, respectively. In 2016, Amazon represented 54.6% of our revenue and Microsoft represented 18.3% of our revenue. As a result, the loss of, or a significant reduction in orders from any of our key customers would materially and adversely affect our revenue and results of operations. We typically do not have long-term contracts with our customers and instead rely on recurring purchase orders. If our key customers do not continue to purchase our existing products or fail to purchase additional products from us, our revenue would decline and our results of operations would be adversely affected.”

As nice as it would have been to get some sort of heads-up warning from the company about Amazon dropping its 40G hardware, Applied Optoelectronics has no particular obligation to explain the risks unique to its operation. This particular flavor of risk is understood to be one that all investors take on when they invest in any company.

So, what are the attorneys doing then?

It’s still a low-cost, high-potential payday for litigators, who often ensure they set themselves up for a paycheck first, whether or not investors receive a penny.

Bottom Line for AAOI Stock

Sue if you want to, just don’t expect much in return. And, if you happen to still be hanging on to your stake in AAOI stock, bear in mind that every penny you make them cough up is a penny you take right off the company’s bottom line, plus all the attorney’s fees

Of course, even if you decide not to bother with the losing proposition, enough investors and lawyers will do it anyway. You can at least take some comfort in knowing you didn’t participate in a pointless exercise.

As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter.