ST. GEORGE, Utah (AP) _ SkyWest Inc. (SKYW) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $72.5 million.

On a per-share basis, the St. George, Utah-based company said it had net income of $1.43.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.41 per share.

The regional airline posted revenue of $743.6 million in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $340.1 million, or $6.62 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.97 billion.

SkyWest shares have declined roughly 5% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $61.53, a rise of 21% 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 SKYW at https://www.zacks.com/ap/SKYW

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News