NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) _ Cerner Corp. (CERN) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $154.3 million.

On a per-share basis, the North Kansas City, Missouri-based company said it had net income of 49 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and stock option expense, were 75 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 74 cents per share.

The health care information technology company posted revenue of $1.44 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.43 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $529.5 million, or $1.65 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.69 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Cerner expects its per-share earnings to range from 69 cents to 71 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1.42 billion to $1.47 billion for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $1.43 billion.

Cerner expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.09 to $3.19 per share, with revenue ranging from $5.73 billion to $5.98 billion.

Cerner shares have climbed 1% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed 2%. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $74.22, a climb of 34% 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 CERN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CERN

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News