Shares in Countrywide Financial Corp. lost an additional 5 percent Monday after one of the troubled lender’s largest shareholders cut its stake in the company by more than 50 percent.

According to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, an investor group affiliated with French financial services company AXA SA cut its stake in the Calabasas-based mortgage lender in August from nearly 11 percent of outstanding stock to 4.1 percent.

Countrywide shares plunged more than 30 percent in August mainly because of a sharp rise in mortgage defaults and foreclosures, particularly among borrowers with subprime loans.

Over the past month, Countrywide has borrowed $11.5 billion and sold a $2 billion stake to Bank of America in order to keep its retail banking and mortgage lending businesses funded. This was before the company said last week it would cut as many as 12,000 jobs which was in addition to the previously announced cuts of 1,400 jobs.

Shares in Countrywide are now flirting with a 52-week low of $15 reached a month ago. Shares were down 5.2 percent, or 95 cents, to $17.27 in afternoon trading Monday on the New York stock Exchange.