Southwest beats Street 4Q forecasts

Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $522 million.

On a per-share basis, the Dallas-based company said it had profit of 84 cents. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, came to 74 cents per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 69 cents per share.

The airline posted revenue of $5.08 billion in the period, which also topped Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.03 billion.

Southwest shares have dropped nearly 1 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has increased nearly 3 percent. The stock has risen 29 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 LUV at https://www.zacks.com/ap/LUV

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Keywords: Southwest Airlines, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings