RESTON, Va. (AP) _ General Dynamics Corp. (GD) on Wednesday reported first-quarter net income of $708 million.

On a per-share basis, the Reston, Virginia-based company said it had net income of $2.48.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.31 per share.

The defense contractor posted revenue of $9.39 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $8.98 billion.

General Dynamics shares have risen 25% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has increased 11%. The stock has risen 38% 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 GD at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GD

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