Epicor Culled From Stock Index; Shares Fall

Investors unloaded shares of Epicor Software Corp. Wednesday, sending the price down more than 41%, and Standard and Poor’s removed the Irvine maker of electronic business software from its S&P; SmallCap Index of 600 companies.

The stock, the biggest percentage loser among Orange County stocks for the day and the second-biggest nationwide, lost 81 cents to close at $1.16 a share.

The beating came a day after Epicor reported a wider-than-expected third-quarter loss and restated its first- and second-quarter results to show bigger losses. The company reported Tuesday that it lost 14 cents a share in the third quarter, compared with a 9-cent loss expected by Wall Street analysts, according to a First Call/Thomson Financial survey of analysts.

Epicor said it saw weakness in demand for software licenses because of seasonal slowness, currency fluctuations and extended sales cycles as customers continue to move over to newer products. Software license revenue also was also hurt by the company’s transition to an exclusive reseller channel.

The company restated its results in the first two quarters to increase allowances for its accounts receivable.