PHOENIX (AP) _ Republic Services Inc. (RSG) on Thursday reported second-quarter earnings of $225.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the Phoenix-based company said it had net income of 71 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and asset impairment costs, came to 81 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 60 cents per share.

The waste management company posted revenue of $2.45 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.39 billion.

Republic Services shares have fallen roughly 2% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed roughly 4%. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $87.90, falling slightly 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 RSG at https://www.zacks.com/ap/RSG

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News