HOUSTON (AP) _ Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. (COG) on Thursday reported first-quarter profit of $53.9 million.

The Houston-based company said it had profit of 14 cents per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 13 cents per share.

The independent oil and gas company posted revenue of $386.5 million in the period, which fell short of Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $386.9 million.

Cabot shares have increased 19% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has decreased nearly 10%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $20.79, a fall of 20% 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 COG at https://www.zacks.com/ap/COG

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News