CORONA, Calif. (AP) _ Monster Beverage Corp. (MNST) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter profit of $471.7 million.

The Corona, California-based company said it had profit of 88 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, were 62 cents per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 59 cents per share.

The energy drink maker posted revenue of $1.2 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.13 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $1.41 billion, or $2.64 per share. Revenue was reported as $4.6 billion.

Monster Beverage shares have decreased roughly 8% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 2%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $85.35, a climb of 28% 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 MNST at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MNST

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