HOUSTON (AP) _ Marathon Oil Corp. (MRO) on Wednesday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $20 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the Houston-based company said it had a loss of 3 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 7 cents per share.

The results fell short of Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 8 cents per share.

The energy company posted revenue of $1.22 billion in the period, also falling short of Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.27 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $480 million, or 59 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $5.19 billion.

Marathon Oil shares have decreased 15% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen nearly 5%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $11.61, a decrease of 25% 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 MRO at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRO

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News