SAN FRANCISCO – Analysts who follow Google Inc. cut their estimates for the Internet giant’s fourth-quarter financial results Wednesday, as the company’s shares dipped below the $300 mark for the first time in more than three years.

Analysts cited evidence that Mountain View, Calif.-based Google, like other Internet companies, is suffering from a marked slowdown in online advertising amid the ongoing financial crisis.

Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney said in a note to clients that search-engine marketers, which help place advertisements with Internet search companies such as Google, have been telling him that they “almost universally expect (the fourth quarter) to be the weakest they have ever experienced.”

While maintaining a buy recommendation on Google shares, Mahaney cut by 3 percent his estimates for both the company’s fourth-quarter profit and net revenue, to $5.03 a share and $4.16 billion, respectively.

Analysts on average expect Google to post earnings excluding special items of $5.12 a share for the quarter ending in December, as well as $4.3 billion in net revenue, according to estimates compiled by FactSet Research.

Google shares dipped more than 6 percent to close at $291. The shares had not fallen below $300 since October 2005.

Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Aggarwal cut his forecast for Google’s fourth-quarter profit to $5.10 a share, down from $5.21 previously, and revised lower his net revenue estimate to $4.26 billion from $4.37 billion.

“Overall ad budgets continue to come down,” Aggarwal told clients in a research brief.

Aggarwal said that while Google has made strides recently to increase the revenue it earns every time an Internet user clicks on one of the company’s search advertisements, the flagging economy has put a damper on those efforts.

Still, Aggarwal noted, “Advertiser/media buyers continue to find search to be the most compelling online ad format.”

And in the current economic environment, “search budgets are still holding better than perhaps any kind of advertising categories,” Aggarwal said.

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