When Dole Food Co. finally settled a years-long battle with Nicaraguan farm workers last week, it didn’t do much to slow the company’s sliding stock price. Instead, an analyst said the company’s problems may be rooted in a different part of the world – Europe.

The European crisis has prompted investors to avoid companies with ties to the continent, where mounting debt levels and a weak euro continue to drag down demand. About 20 percent of Dole’s business is based in Europe.

“Investors are eschewing stocks that have meaningful exposure to Europe,” said Heather L. Jones, managing director of BB&T Capital Markets in Richmond, Va.

Dole’s share activity mirrors that of Chiquita Brands International, a Cincinnati produce company that’s similarly vulnerable to seasonal trends and foreign currencies. Chiquita’s stock is down 35 percent in the last three months.

Since July 22, Dole stock had slid 33 percent. During that span, the NYSE Composite was down 19 percent.

“Dole’s stock is one of the least predictable names I cover,” Jones said. “Investors have become more risk-averse, and Dole and Chiquita are considered high-risk stocks.”

Dole said its financial condition will not be affected by a major settlement it reached this week over alleged sterility caused by the company’s pesticide use.

On Oct. 3, Dole announced that it signed a definitive settlement with Beaumont, Texas, law firm Provost & Umphrey LLP, bringing an end to 38 lawsuits filed by foreign agricultural workers. The workers, most of whom are Nicaraguan, claim they were rendered sterile after working in Dole fields treated with a pesticide known as DBCP, which had been banned in the United States. Plaintiffs sought more than $9 billion in damages. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Dole representatives did not return requests for comment.

The company still faces hundreds more similar suits brought by workers in other Latin American countries and in the Philippines, said Andrea Neuman, a partner at law firm Gibson Dunn in New York, which represents Dole.

The settlement follows previous sterility litigation brought by Juan Dominguez, an L.A. personal injury lawyer, against Dole. Dominguez won a jury trial in 2007, but the judge threw out two of his cases, saying Dominguez had manufactured evidence and falsified medical reports. The judge later ruled that Provost & Umphrey had not actively participated in the fraud.