LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) _ Molina Healthcare Inc. (MOH) on Wednesday reported first-quarter profit of $228 million.

The Long Beach, California-based company said it had profit of $3.89 per share. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, came to $4.44 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $3.78 per share.

The provider of Medicaid-related services posted revenue of $6.52 billion in the period.

Molina shares have climbed 17% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $248.77, an increase of 50% 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 MOH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MOH

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