KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) _ Eastman Chemical Co. (EMN) on Thursday reported first-quarter earnings of $258 million.

On a per-share basis, the Kingsport, Tennessee-based company said it had profit of $1.89. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs and pretax expenses, were $2.03 per share.

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

The specialty chemicals maker posted revenue of $2.24 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.21 billion.

Eastman Chemical shares have decreased 24% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has dropped almost 10%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $60.58, a decline of 25% 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 EMN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/EMN

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News