CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) _ Albemarle Corp. (ALB) on Wednesday reported second-quarter profit of $424.6 million.

The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company said it had profit of $3.62 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were 89 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 83 cents per share.

The specialty chemicals company posted revenue of $773.9 million in the period, missing Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $787.1 million.

Albemarle expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.60 to $4 per share, with revenue in the range of $3.3 billion to $3.4 billion.

Albemarle shares have increased 40% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $206.84, more than doubling 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 ALB at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ALB

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