NEW YORK — Google plummeted almost $80 per share, more than 10 percent, and trading in the stock was halted 21⁄2 hours Thursday after a disappointing earnings report was published ahead of schedule and surprised investors.
NEW YORK — Google plummeted almost $80 per share, more than 10 percent, and trading in the stock was halted 21⁄2 hours Thursday after a disappointing earnings report was published ahead of schedule and surprised investors.
Bleak figures in the report about online advertising dragged down Facebook stock, too, and the Nasdaq composite index skidded 1 percent on a day when the broader stock market was mostly flat.
Google was trading at $754 per share at 12:30 p.m. EDT, then fell almost $20 in a minute after investors saw the report, a draft. It dropped as low as $676, and Google halted trading at 12:50 p.m., with the stock at $687.
The stock was halted until 3:20 p.m. Companies routinely halt trading when they have news to release to investors during the market day, but 21⁄2 hours is an unusually long suspension.
When trading in Google resumed, the stock climbed slightly, but it still finished down $60.49, or 8 percent, at $695.
Google blamed a printing company, R.R. Donnelley & Sons, for filing its quarterly statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission more than three hours ahead of schedule.
R.R. Donnelley & Sons stock also plunged — as much as 71 cents, or 6.5 percent, to $10.14 — after the mistake. It later recovered most of the loss and ended the day down 9 cents.
The Google report said it earned $2.18 billion from July through September, down from $2.73 billion in the same period a year ago.
Profit came to $6.53 per share, and would have been $9.03 if not for accounting costs from employee stock compensation and restructuring charges related to Google’s acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a cellphone maker.
Google is the third-largest component in the Nasdaq composite, behind Apple and Microsoft. The Nasdaq finished down 31.25 points at 3,072.87.
The broader market fared better: The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 8.06 points, or 0.06 percent, at 13,549.94. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 3.57 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,457.34.