AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ National Instruments Corp. (NATI) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $4.7 million.

On a per-share basis, the Austin, Texas-based company said it had net income of 4 cents. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to 51 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 45 cents per share.

The maker of scientific measuring equipment and software posted revenue of $367.8 million in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $143.7 million, or $1.09 per share. Revenue was reported as $1.29 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, National Instruments expects its per-share earnings to range from 24 cents to 38 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $324 million to $354 million for the fiscal first quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $315.1 million.

National Instruments shares have dropped almost 3% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $42.69, a fall of 4% 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 NATI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NATI

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