HOUSTON (AP) — HOUSTON (AP) — APA Corporation (APA) on Wednesday reported third-quarter earnings of $698 million.

On a per-share basis, the Houston-based company said it had profit of $2. Earnings, adjusted for non-recurring gains, were $1.94 per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.44 per share.

The oil and natural gas producer posted revenue of $2.81 billion in the period, also beating Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2.37 billion.

APA shares have climbed 82% since the beginning of the year, while the S&P's 500 index has risen 12%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $44.49, more than doubling 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 APA at https://www.zacks.com/ap/APA