ATLANTA (AP) _ Southern Co. (SO) on Thursday reported a loss of $211 million in its fourth quarter.

The Atlanta-based company said it had a loss of 20 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, were 36 cents per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 35 cents per share.

The power company posted revenue of $5.77 billion in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.41 billion, or $2.26 per share. Revenue was reported as $23.11 billion.

For the current quarter ending in April, Southern Co. expects its per-share earnings to be 90 cents.

The company expects full-year earnings in the range of $3.50 to $3.60 per share.

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

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