NEW YORK (Bloomberg) ? Shares of W.P. Stewart & Co., a Bermuda-based asset manager of $8.4 billion, lost almost a quarter of their value on Thursday after second-quarter earnings dropped 27 percent, missing analysts? estimates.

The stock dropped as much as $3.38, or 22 percent, to $11.92 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading and traded down 19 percent to $12.40 at 1.38 p.m. W.P. Stewart said on Thursday that its second-quarter net income fell to $9.6 million, or 21 cents a share, from $12.3 million, or 27 cents, a year earlier. On Friday, the firm?s shares closed down $1.38 to $10.85.

W.P. Stewart has been struggling to stem customer withdrawals, which have totaled $983 million in the past two years.

In the second quarter, investors pulled $510 million out of W.P. Stewart?s funds, bringing total withdrawals this year to $747 million.

Earnings of 21 cents a share trailed Thomson Financial?s 26-cent estimate, an average of five analysts it surveyed. Thomson did not disclose whether the estimate included any one-time costs or gains.

W.P. Stewart said a one-time expense related to how it charges its performance fees reduced earnings by five cents a share. Revenue from fees fell 0.5 percent to $25.8 million.

Today?s drop in W.P. Stewart?s shares is the most since the company went public in December 2000.

The shares have dropped 47 percent this past year, compared with the 9.1 percent gain by the 14-member Standard and Poor?s Supercomposite Asset Management & Custody Banks Index.