HOUSTON (AP) _ Westlake Chemical Corp. (WLK) on Tuesday reported first-quarter profit of $242 million.

On a per-share basis, the Houston-based company said it had profit of $1.87.

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

The chemical company posted revenue of $2.36 billion in the period, also surpassing Street forecasts. Four analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $2 billion.

Westlake shares have increased 16% since the beginning of the year. The stock has more than doubled 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 WLK at https://www.zacks.com/ap/WLK