BANNOCKBURN, Ill. (AP) _ Stericycle Inc. (SRCL) on Thursday reported a loss of $219.3 million in its fourth quarter.

On a per-share basis, the Bannockburn, Illinois-based company said it had a loss of $2.41. Earnings, adjusted for asset impairment costs and non-recurring costs, were 72 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of nine analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 70 cents per share.

The medical waste management company posted revenue of $799.9 million in the period, missing Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $802.8 million.

For the year, the company reported that its loss widened to $346.8 million, or $3.81 per share. Revenue was reported as $3.31 billion.

Stericycle shares have declined slightly more than 3% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has decreased 3.5%. The stock has increased 39% 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 SRCL at https://www.zacks.com/ap/SRCL

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News