STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) _ United Rentals Inc. (URI) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $297 million.

The Stamford, Connecticut-based company said it had net income of $4.09 per share. Earnings, adjusted for costs related to mergers and acquisitions and non-recurring costs, were $5.04 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $4.28 per share.

The equipment rental company posted revenue of $2.28 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.17 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $890 million, or $12.20 per share. Revenue was reported as $8.53 billion.

United Rentals expects full-year revenue in the range of $8.63 billion to $9.03 billion.

United Rentals shares have increased nearly 2% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $236.27, an increase of 62% 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 URI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/URI

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