United tops 4Q profit forecasts

United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $397 million.

On a per-share basis, the Chicago-based company said it had net income of $1.26. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, were $1.78 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.65 per share.

The airline posted revenue of $9.05 billion in the period, missing Street forecasts. Five analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $9.06 billion.

United shares have climbed 1 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $73.74, an increase of 54 percent in the last 12 months.

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

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Keywords: United Continental, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings