NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Genworth Financial (GNW) - Get Report are tanking, sharply down 6.13% to $7.28 on heavy volume in afternoon trading Monday, after the company said it spots "material weakness" in its control over financial reporting, Reuters reports.

The life and mortgage insurer failed to identify the $44 million after-tax calculation error, saying it didn't have enough controls in place. The company made changes to one of its methodologies as part of a review of its long-term-care claim reserves for the third quarter of 2014. 

Genworth Financial said the deficiency did not lead to a material misstatement in its consolidated financial statements, Reuters noted.

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About 14.05 million shares have exchanged hands as of 2:58 p.m. ET today, compared to its average trading volume of about 6.72 million shares a day.

Richmond, VA-based Genworth is a financial security company that provides insurance, wealth management, investment and financial solutions. The company has more than 15 million customers, with a presence in more than 25 countries.

The company operates in segments including insurance, mortgage insurance, as well as corporate and runoff.

In September of 2013, Genworth closed the sale of its wealth management business to a partnership of Aquiline Capital Partners and Genstar Capital.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates GENWORTH FINANCIAL INC as a Sell with a ratings score of D+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate GENWORTH FINANCIAL INC (GNW) a SELL. This is driven by a number of negative factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in its earnings per share."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Insurance industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 465.4% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $208.00 million to -$760.00 million.
• Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Insurance industry and the overall market, GENWORTH FINANCIAL INC's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 49.09%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 464.28% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
• GENWORTH FINANCIAL INC has experienced a steep decline in earnings per share in the most recent quarter in comparison to its performance from the same quarter a year ago. The company has reported a trend of declining earnings per share over the past two years. However, the consensus estimate suggests that this trend should reverse in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, GENWORTH FINANCIAL INC swung to a loss, reporting -$2.51 versus $1.15 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.13 versus -$2.51).
• Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, it is higher than that of the industry average, inferring that management of debt levels may need to be evaluated further.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: GNW Ratings Report