NORFOLK, Va. (AP) _ Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) on Wednesday reported third-quarter profit of $569 million.

On a per-share basis, the Norfolk, Virginia-based company said it had profit of $2.22. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs, came to $2.51 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.36 per share.

The railroad posted revenue of $2.51 billion in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.53 billion.

Norfolk Southern shares have increased nearly 5% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased roughly 5%. The stock has risen 8.5% 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 NSC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NSC

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