EL DORADO, Ark. (AP) _ Murphy Oil Corp. (MUR) on Thursday reported a fourth-quarter loss of $71.7 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the El Dorado, Arkansas-based company said it had a loss of 46 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 16 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 12 cents per share.

The oil and gas producer posted revenue of $637.5 million in the period, which did not meet Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $758.4 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $1.15 billion, or $6.98 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.83 billion.

Murphy Oil shares have declined 16% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed slightly more than 1%. The stock has declined 18% 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 MUR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MUR

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News