CINCINNATI (AP) _ First Financial Bancorp (FFBC) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter net income of $48.3 million.

The Cincinnati-based bank said it had earnings of 49 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring costs, came to 51 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 45 cents per share.

The holding company for First Financial Bank posted revenue of $191.5 million in the period. Its revenue net of interest expense was $181.6 million, also surpassing Street forecasts.

For the year, the company reported profit of $155.8 million, or $1.59 per share. Revenue was reported as $652.2 million.

First Financial shares have climbed 10% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $19.31, a decline of 22% 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 FFBC at https://www.zacks.com/ap/FFBC

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