NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) _ HCA Healthcare Inc. (HCA) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.81 billion.

On a per-share basis, the Nashville, Tennessee-based company said it had net income of $5.75. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $4.42 per share.

The results missed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $4.55 per share.

The hospital operator posted revenue of $15.06 billion in the period, also missing Street forecasts. Ten analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $15.41 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $6.96 billion, or $21.16 per share. Revenue was reported as $58.75 billion.

HCA expects full-year earnings to be $18.40 to $19.20 per share, with revenue in the range of $60 billion to $62 billion.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HCA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HCA

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