KENILWORTH, N.J. (AP) _ Merck & Co. (MRK) on Tuesday reported third-quarter earnings of $2.94 billion.

The Kenilworth, New Jersey-based company said it had profit of $1.16 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, came to $1.74 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.44 per share.

The pharmaceutical company posted revenue of $12.55 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $12.26 billion.

Merck expects full-year earnings in the range of $5.91 to $6.01 per share, with revenue in the range of $47.6 billion to $48.6 billion.

Merck shares have dropped 13% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed slightly more than 5%. The stock has declined 4.5% 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 MRK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MRK

Copyright by Automated Insights, Inc. All rights reserved., source Associated Press News