BASEL, Switzerland (AP) _ Novartis AG (NVS) on Tuesday reported third-quarter profit of $1.57 billion.

The Basel, Switzerland-based company said it had profit of 72 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $1.58 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.57 per share.

The drugmaker posted revenue of $12.54 billion in the period, falling short of Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $12.9 billion.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on NVS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NVS

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