RESTON, Va. (AP) _ General Dynamics Corp. (GD) on Wednesday reported second-quarter profit of $737 million.

On a per-share basis, the Reston, Virginia-based company said it had profit of $2.61.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.52 per share.

The defense contractor posted revenue of $9.22 billion in the period, which did not meet Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $9.23 billion.

General Dynamics shares have climbed 30% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has risen 17%. The stock has increased 31% 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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