Citi analyst Asiya Merchant opened a negative catalyst watch on iRobot after the company filed a motion for a preliminary injunction against the Shark IQ Robot, claiming that SharkNinja infringed on three patents related to its Roomba i7+. The analyst noted that when iRobot previously won an exclusion order in December 2018 to bar Hoover and bobSweep products from being imported into the U.S., iRobot saw "a significant increase" in litigation expenses, to about $4.3B per year from $0.6B in the prior year. Merchant, who believes that the new Shark litigation could drive increased operating expenses for the company over the next few quarters, keeps a Neutral rating on iRobot shares.