Pool Supplier Leslie’s Beats Investor Suit Over Demand Drop (2)

Leslie’s Inc. defeated proposed class claims that the pool supplier hid its excess chlorine-based product inventory levels as pandemic demand waned, a federal judge ruled.

North Carolina’s treasurer, the lead plaintiff, didn’t sufficiently connect the dots between alleged misstatements and omissions to successfully plead falsity, Judge Sharad H. Desai of the US District Court for the District of Arizona said, tossing the suit Monday.

But issues of specificity on what exactly investors thought was false or omitted in purported misstatements about demand and inventory, and other shortcomings, could be fixed in an amended complaint, the judge said. Desai allowed ...