SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) on Thursday reported a loss of $117.2 million in its fourth quarter.

On a per-share basis, the San Francisco-based company said it had a loss of 65 cents.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 72 cents per share.

The biopharmaceutical company posted revenue of $23.5 million in the period, also exceeding Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $19.6 million.

Nektar shares have increased 32% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $22.44, a rise of slightly more than 1% 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 NKTR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NKTR

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