ST LOUIS (AP) _ Ameren Corp. (AEE) on Thursday reported third-quarter profit of $452 million.

On a per-share basis, the St. Louis-based company said it had profit of $1.74.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.72 per share.

The utility posted revenue of $2.31 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.9 billion.

Ameren expects full-year earnings to be $4 to $4.15 per share.

Ameren shares have dropped almost 9% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has decreased 22%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $81.14, a drop of nearly 4% 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 AEE at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AEE

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