Google’s latest gaffes exasperate analysts

SAN FRANCISCO — Google Inc.’s stock price tumbled by nearly 3 percent Wednesday as exasperated analysts scolded the company for a series of events that has confounded investors.

In the past five weeks, Google has sprung three significant surprises on the stock market:

“ An abnormally high tax rate that undercut its fourth-quarter earnings;

“ The specter of slowing growth, raised in unscripted remarks by its chief financial officer, George Reyes;

“ And the inadvertent release of internal documents that discussed concerns about flagging profit margins this year.

The company disclosed the last gaffe in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late Tuesday, delaying investor reaction until Wednesday.

Google’s shares fell $10.57, or 2.9 percent, to close at $353.88 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock price has fallen 26 percent from its Jan. 11 high of $475.11 as investors fret about the recent credibility issues, as well as the competitive threats to the Internet’s leading search engine.

As they dissected the company’s leaked financial forecasts, analysts also chastised Google for repeatedly confusing investors.

“The company’s pattern of financial miscommunication is challenging our enthusiasm for the shares,” Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney wrote in a Wednesday research note. Despite those misgivings, Mahaney reiterated his belief that Google’s stock price will hit $490 during the next year.

RBC Capital Markets analyst Jordan Rohan derided Google as “very sloppy” and called upon the company to abandon its policy against giving regular financial guidance to investors — a common practice for most large technology firms.