NEW YORK (AP) — News Corp. (NWSA) on Thursday reported a fiscal third-quarter loss of $730 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the New York-based company said it had a loss of $1.24. Adjusted for one-time gains and costs, it posted a profit of 3 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 2 cents per share.

The publishing company whose flagship is The Wall Street Journal posted revenue of $2.27 billion in the period.

News Corp. shares have dropped 32% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has declined 11%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $9.65, a fall of 17% 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 NWSA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NWSA

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News