BURNABY, British Columbia (AP) _ Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Inc. (RBA) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $51.6 million.

The Burnaby, British Columbia-based company said it had profit of 47 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 44 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 40 cents per share.

The heavy equipment auctioneer posted revenue of $332.2 million in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $149 million, or $1.36 per share. Revenue was reported as $1.32 billion.

Ritchie Bros. shares have fallen nearly 6% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $40.52, a rise of slightly more than 8% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on RBA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/RBA

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News