SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) _ Meritage Homes Corp. (MTH) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter net income of $237.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said it had profit of $6.25.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $6.04 per share.

The homebuilder posted revenue of $1.5 billion in the period, which matched Street forecasts.

For the year, the company reported profit of $737.4 million, or $19.29 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.12 billion.

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

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