BASEL, Switzerland (AP) _ Novartis AG (NVS) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $936 million.

The Basel, Switzerland-based company said it had profit of 40 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $1.12 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.09 per share.

The drugmaker posted revenue of $12.32 billion in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $6.71 billion, or $2.80 per share. Revenue was reported as $48.52 billion.

Novartis shares have fallen roughly 4 percent since the beginning of the year. The stock has declined 14 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 NVS at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NVS

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Keywords: Novartis, Earnings Report