Vernon-based frozen food maker Overhill Farms Inc. underwhelmed investors Friday with a quarterly earnings 64 percent lower than the same period last year.

For the third quarter ending June 27, the company reported net earnings of $930,000 or 6 cents a share. In the same quarter last year, the company earned $2.6 million or 16 cents a share.

Revenue in the quarter totaled $43.4 million, down from $54.5 million a year earlier.

The reason for the poor performance was “the difficult economic climate, with consumers remaining cautious in their spending, even on grocery items,” Chief Executive James Rudis said in a statement. “Stronger sales earlier in the year reflected, in great part, increases in customer inventories from their low levels late in calendar 2009, in anticipation of a rebound in the economy and sales growth that did not materialize. As a result, customer orders in our third quarter were reduced across all categories.”

Shares of Overhill Farms lost as much as 25 percent of their value early Friday before rebounding a bit. By mid-day, shares were trading at $4.40, down 65 cents or 13 percent from Thursday’s close.