SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) _ Meritage Homes Corp. (MTH) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $152.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the Scottsdale, Arizona-based company said it had profit of $3.97.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.36 per share.

The homebuilder posted revenue of $1.42 billion in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $1.41 billion, also beating Street forecasts. Nine analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.3 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $423.5 million, or $11 per share. Revenue was reported as $4.48 billion.

Meritage shares have risen 13% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $93.31, a climb of 37% 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 MTH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MTH

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