ATLANTA (AP) — ATLANTA (AP) — Ameris Bancorp (ABCB) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter earnings of $108.4 million.

The Atlanta-based bank said it had earnings of $1.59 per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of four analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.56 per share.

The bank posted revenue of $419.9 million in the period. Its revenue net of interest expense was $308.1 million, which missed Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $308.7 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $412.2 million, or $6 per share. Revenue was reported as $1.21 billion.

Ameris Bancorp shares have increased 9.5% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $81.30, a climb of 25% in the last 12 months.

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This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on ABCB at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ABCB