Northern Trust beats Street 4Q forecasts
Northern Trust on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter profit of $244 million.

The bank, based in Chicago, said it had earnings of 98 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for pretax gains, were 94 cents per share.

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

The wealth management firm posted revenue of $1.13 billion in the period, also topping Street forecasts. Analysts expected $1.1 billion, according to Zacks.

For the year, the company reported profit of $811.8 million, or $3.32 per share. Revenue was reported as $4.33 billion.

Northern Trust shares have dropped slightly more than 7 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has dropped nearly 2 percent. The stock has risen roughly 3 percent in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment.