DUBLIN, Ohio (AP) _ Cardinal Health Inc. (CAH) on Thursday reported a loss of $253 million in its fiscal first quarter.

The Dublin, Ohio-based company said it had a loss of 86 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and amortization costs, were $1.51 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.14 per share.

The prescription drug distributor posted revenue of $39.07 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $38.42 billion.

Cardinal expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.65 to $5.95 per share.

Cardinal shares have declined slightly more than 2% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased roughly 7%. The stock has declined slightly more than 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 CAH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CAH

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