WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) _ Ashland Inc. (ASH) on Monday reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of $57 million.

The Wilmington, Delaware-based company said it had net income of $1.04 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and to account for discontinued operations, were $1.46 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.39 per share.

The chemical company posted revenue of $631 million in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $636.1 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $927 million, or $16.41 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.39 billion.

Ashland expects full-year revenue in the range of $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion.

Ashland shares have declined 5% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Monday, shares hit $102.26, a rise of 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 ASH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ASH

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