RENO, Nev. (AP) _ Monarch Casino & Resort Inc. (MCRI) on Wednesday reported a second-quarter loss of $4.3 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the Reno, Nevada-based company said it had a loss of 24 cents.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 60 cents per share.

The casino operator posted revenue of $15.2 million in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $11.3 million.

Monarch Casino shares have declined 29% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $34.54, a decline of 21% 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 MCRI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MCRI

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News