BRANCHVILLE, N.J. (AP) _ Selective Insurance Group Inc. (SIGI) on Thursday reported fourth-quarter profit of $81.9 million.

The Branchville, New Jersey-based company said it had net income of $1.36 per share. Earnings, adjusted for investment costs, came to $1.37 per share.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $1.09 per share.

The insurance holding company posted revenue of $728.9 million in the period. Its adjusted revenue was $729.8 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $271.6 million, or $4.53 per share. Revenue was reported as $2.83 billion.

Selective Insurance shares have climbed 3% since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Thursday, shares hit $67.22, a climb of 12% 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 SIGI at https://www.zacks.com/ap/SIGI

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News