DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) _ Caterpillar Inc. (CAT) on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $1.54 billion.

The Deerfield, Illinois-based company said it had profit of $2.86 per share. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs, came to $2.88 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.66 per share.

The construction equipment company posted revenue of $13.59 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $13.5 billion.

Caterpillar shares have increased 3.5% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has fallen 12%. The stock has decreased 7% 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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