HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) _ Essent Group Ltd. (ESNT) on Friday reported fourth-quarter profit of $147 million.

On a per-share basis, the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said it had profit of $1.49.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.46 per share.

The mortgage insurance and reinsurance holding company posted revenue of $228.8 million in the period.

For the year, the company reported profit of $555.7 million, or $5.66 per share. Revenue was reported as $867.6 million.

Essent Group shares have increased slightly since the beginning of the year. The stock has increased 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 ESNT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ESNT

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News