SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Nektar Therapeutics (NKTR) on Thursday reported a loss of $138.7 million in its first quarter.

On a per-share basis, the San Francisco-based company said it had a loss of 78 cents. Losses, adjusted for asset impairment costs, came to 53 cents per share.

The results topped Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for a loss of 81 cents per share.

The biopharmaceutical company posted revenue of $50.6 million in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Seven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $44.9 million.

Nektar shares have dropped roughly 8% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $19.88, a decrease of 38% 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 NKTR at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NKTR

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News