LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) _ W.W. Grainger Inc. (GWW) on Friday reported first-quarter net income of $236 million.

The Lake Forest, Illinois-based company said it had profit of $4.48 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $4.31 per share.

The seller of maintenance and other supplies posted revenue of $3.08 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $3.05 billion.

W.W. Grainger shares have risen slightly more than 5% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has increased 12%. The stock has climbed 53% 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 GWW at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GWW

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