CHICAGO (AP) _ Hyatt Hotels Corp. (H) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $321 million.

On a per-share basis, the Chicago-based company said it had profit of $3.08. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to 47 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 20 cents per share.

The hotel operator posted revenue of $1.27 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.18 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $766 million, or $7.21 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.02 billion.

Hyatt Hotels shares have risen slightly since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $89.85, an increase of 21% 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 H at https://www.zacks.com/ap/H

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News