HOUSTON (AP) _ Crown Castle International Corp. (CCI) on Wednesday reported a key measure of profitability in its fourth quarter. The results beat Wall Street expectations.

The Houston-based real estate investment trust said it had funds from operations of $802 million, or $1.85 per share, in the period.

The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of $1.83 per share.

Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The company said it had net income of $413 million, or 95 cents per share.

The operator of wireless communications towers, based in Houston, posted revenue of $1.76 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.75 billion.

For the year, the company reported funds from operations of $3.2 billion. Revenue was reported as $6.99 billion.

Crown Castle expects full-year funds from operations in the range of $7.58 to $7.68 per share.

The company's shares have climbed 7% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has declined 16%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $145.47, a fall of 20% 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 CCI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/CCI

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