RAHWAY, N.J. (AP) _ Merck & Co. (MRK) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter profit of $3.02 billion.

On a per-share basis, the Rahway, New Jersey-based company said it had net income of $1.18. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions and restructuring costs, came to $1.62 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.56 per share.

The pharmaceutical company posted revenue of $13.83 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $13.74 billion.

Merck expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.80 to $6.95 per share, with revenue in the range of $57.2 billion to $58.7 billion.

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

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