MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) _ First Merchants Corp. (FRME) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter net income of $70.8 million.

The bank, based in Muncie, Indiana, said it had earnings of $1.19 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.17 per share.

The bank posted revenue of $215.1 million in the period. Its revenue net of interest expense was $173.1 million, also exceeding Street forecasts.

For the year, the company reported profit of $222.1 million, or $3.81 per share. Revenue was reported as $628.1 million.

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

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