DENVER — Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., a subsidiary of JBS S.A., reached an agreement with investors to pay $41.5 million in a class action lawsuit alleging the company misrepresented the broiler industry’s competition in order to inflate its stock price.

On Jan. 24, the plaintiffs filed a motion with the US District Court for the District of Colorado seeking preliminary approval of the settlement. The agreement comes after nearly a decade of prosecution, with the initial complaint filed October 2016.

According to the lawsuit, Pilgrim’s allegedly violated the Securities Exchange Act by portraying the poultry industry as highly competitive, with the company’s strong financial performance being a result of its product mix, diverse portfolio model and pricing strategy, when it was actually due to an illegal price-fixing conspiracy with its competitors.

The investors said they learned of the alleged scheme through third-party disclosures that led to significant drops in Pilgrim’s stock. One such disclosure being the filing on an antitrust class action suit by a group of Pilgrim’s customers and other chicken producers claiming Pilgrim’s participated in a price-fixing scheme, and other disclosures coming from news outlets like The New York Times and The Washington Post.