COSTA MESA, Calif. (AP) _ MeridianLink Inc. (MLNK) on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $7.5 million, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier.

The Costa Mesa, California-based company said it had profit of 9 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, came to 17 cents per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 9 cents per share.

The provider of cloud-based software services for financial institutions posted revenue of $72.8 million in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $68.5 million.

For the current quarter ending in July, MeridianLink said it expects revenue in the range of $71.5 million to $73.5 million.

The company expects full-year revenue in the range of $289 million to $293 million.

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

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