Worse-than-expected financial performance and a downgrade from an analyst sent shares of Woodland Hills-based United Online down Thursday morning.

After markets closed on Wednesday, the company released its second-quarter financials. The company reported net earnings of $13 million or 15 cents a share, down from $17.7 million or 21 cents a share for the same quarter last year.

According to Thomson Reuters, analysts on an average were expecting earnings of 26 cents a share. Early Thursday, the stock was downgraded to “accumulate” from “buy” by analyst George Sutton at Craig-Hallum.

The lower earnings came mostly from Classmates.com, one of United Online’s biggest sites, where revenue fell 16 percent in the quarter.

In a statement, Chief Executive Mark Goldston said the quarter marked the first step in a revamp of Classmates.com and its business model.

“Year-over-year financial comparisons in our Classmates Media segment remained challenging in the quarter,” Goldston said in the statement. “During the quarter we launched a compelling new feature on Classmates.com that enables paying subscribers to enjoy unlimited viewing of high school yearbooks available on the Web site. The launch of digitized high school yearbooks is the first step in our planned transition of the business from a social networking company into a premier nostalgia content company on the Internet.”

By mid-day on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, shares of United Online lost 80 cents or 13 percent of their value to trade at $5.59.