ADM Sued Over Stock Drop After Accounting Probe Announcement (1)

Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.'s accounting practices misled investors about a business unit’s growth, a shareholder alleges in the wake of the agricultural giant’s recent announcement of an internal investigation and an executive’s suspension.

A stock-price jolt of 24% Jan. 22, the steepest on record for ADM, followed the announcement the previous day.

ADM’s food-ingredient segment, called Nutrition, faced “weak demand for meat alternatives and other products as well as downtime at a large soy processing facility,” Raymond Chow says in the proposed class action, filed Wednesday in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The company and top ...