HOUSTON (AP) _ Kirby Corp. (KEX) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $22.2 million.

On a per-share basis, the Houston-based company said it had profit of 37 cents.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 24 cents per share.

The barge operator posted revenue of $489.8 million in the period.

For the year, the company reported a loss of $272.5 million, or $4.55 per share, swinging to a loss in the period. Revenue was reported as $2.17 billion.

Kirby shares have decreased 1.5% since the beginning of the year. The stock has dropped 39% 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 KEX at https://www.zacks.com/ap/KEX

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