BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) _ Encompass Health Corp. (EHC) on Wednesday reported third-quarter net income of $77.7 million.

The Birmingham, Alabama-based company said it had profit of 78 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 75 cents per share.

The rehabilitation hospital operator posted revenue of $1.17 billion in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.18 billion.

For the current quarter ending in December, Encompass Health expects its per-share earnings to range from 79 cents to 90 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1.15 billion to $1.22 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter.

Encompass Health shares have fallen nearly 8% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $63.80, a decline of 5.5% 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 EHC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/EHC

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