NORFOLK, Va. (AP) _ Norfolk Southern Corp. (NSC) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $671 million.

The Norfolk, Virginia-based company said it had net income of $2.64 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.48 per share.

The railroad posted revenue of $2.57 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.56 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $2.01 billion, or $7.84 per share. Revenue was reported as $9.79 billion.

Norfolk Southern shares have risen slightly since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased 2.5%. The stock has increased 17% 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 NSC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NSC

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