JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s third-quarter results were published more than three hours ahead of schedule because of a mistake by Shareholder.com, the investor- communications company owned by Nasdaq OMX Group Inc.
"The root cause was a human error internally at Shareholder.com," Ryan Wells, a Nasdaq spokesman, said in an e- mailed statement.
Shareholder.com provides companies with Internet services including website maintenance for investor relations. JPMorgan's earnings press release and supplement appeared online at about 3:30 a.m. in New York. The bank had set 7 a.m. for release of the market-sensitive data.
JPMorgan dropped as much as 3.6 percent after the report showed profit and expenses missed analysts' estimates.
"There appears to have been a problem with Shareholder.com earlier this morning, which led to an early release of some information," Joe Evangelisti, a spokesman for New York-based JPMorgan, said in an e-mailed statement.
Other companies have faced similar mishaps. In 2012, Google Inc. said financial-printing company R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co. was responsible for releasing its results before the scheduled time.
Microsoft Corp.'s earnings were published over an hour ahead of schedule in 2011 after Selerity Inc., a New Jersey market-information company, used software it developed to obtain the press release from Microsoft's website.
Insurance broker Brown & Brown Inc. accidentally e-mailed an unfinished income statement to analysts six days before the scheduled release date in 2008.
