PARSIPPANY, N.J. (AP) _ Zoetis Inc. (ZTS) on Thursday reported first-quarter profit of $559 million.

On a per-share basis, the Parsippany, New Jersey-based company said it had net income of $1.17. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs and costs related to mergers and acquisitions, were $1.26 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.04 per share.

The animal health company posted revenue of $1.87 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.73 billion.

Zoetis expects full-year earnings in the range of $4.42 to $4.51 per share, with revenue in the range of $7.5 billion to $7.63 billion.

Zoetis shares have increased 5% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has increased 11%. The stock has increased 32% 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 ZTS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ZTS

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