HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ The Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. (HIG) on Wednesday reported first-quarter net income of $273 million.

The Hartford, Connecticut-based company said it had profit of 74 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $1.34 per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.33 per share.

The insurance and financial services company posted revenue of $4.96 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $5.19 billion.

The Hartford shares have declined 32% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has declined 9%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $41.33, a drop of 20% 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 HIG at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HIG

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News