SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) _ Applied Materials Inc. (AMAT) on Thursday reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $1.59 billion.

On a per-share basis, the Santa Clara, California-based company said it had profit of $1.85. Earnings, adjusted for pretax expenses and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, were $2.03 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.72 per share.

The maker of chipmaking equipment posted revenue of $6.75 billion in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $6.38 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $6.53 billion, or $7.44 per share. Revenue was reported as $25.79 billion.

For the current quarter ending in January, Applied Materials expects its per-share earnings to range from $1.75 to $2.11. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had forecast adjusted earnings per share of $1.73.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $6.3 billion to $7.1 billion for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $6.43 billion.

Applied Materials shares have decreased 34% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has decreased 17%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $104.45, a drop of 33% 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 AMAT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AMAT

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