THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) _ Amgen Inc. (AMGN) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter profit of $1.94 billion.

The Thousand Oaks, California-based company said it had net income of $2.59 per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to $2.89 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.77 per share.

The world's largest biotech drugmaker posted revenue of $5.97 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $5.74 billion.

Amgen expects full-year earnings in the range of $11.80 to $12.60 per share, with revenue in the range of $22.3 billion to $23.1 billion.

Amgen shares have risen 9 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has climbed roughly 2 percent. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $159.58, a climb of slightly more than 6 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 AMGN at https://www.zacks.com/ap/AMGN

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