DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) on Tuesday reported third-quarter profit of $668 million.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company said it had profit of $1.22 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $1.34 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.15 per share.

The construction equipment company posted revenue of $9.88 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $9.67 billion.

Caterpillar shares have increased 11% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed slightly more than 5%. The stock has increased 22% 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 CAT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CAT

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