The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

3. Falling Off the Map

Navteq (NVT Quote) is stumbling into the land of the lost.

The Chicago-based provider of digital map data got slammed this week after posting soggy second-quarter earnings. Navteq, which traffics in the navigation systems installed by big carmakers like Ford (F Quote) and GM (GM Quote), plunged 21% Thursday in heavy trading.

"We faced a number of challenges in the second quarter, including unfavorable car sales trends and delays in customer product launches," CEO Judson Green said in a statement Wednesday.

One challenge that Navteq's press release didn't address -- a $3.1 million deduction from second-quarter revenue -- seemed to stump analysts. On a post-close conference call, Green attributed the hit to a "delayed payment by a significant customer that is going through a restructuring."

Navteq didn't name the offender, saying only that the customer isn't one of its top 20 accounts. Navteq did go out of its way to present itself as a model of accounting propriety, though.

"I would say that some companies would not reduce the revenue in this case," finance chief David Mullen said on the call. "Our policy has always been to reduce revenue because we think that's probably a more conservative way to go."

While hearts everywhere must have soared at that sentiment, one analyst wasn't immediately won over. "I guess I'm not understanding why ... you would continue to do business with them if they haven't paid prior debt," Davenport analyst Bennett Notman said, according to the seekingalpha.com transcript.

"Well, we think they're a viable company," Green replied. "If they can raise some incremental capital, I think that, you know, they'll be in good shape."

Right now, that's a lot more than you can say for Navteq investors.

Dumb-o-Meter score: 85. Counting off the quarter's many accomplishments, Green adds, "We also released our first full-coverage map of Poland."