ATLANTA (AP) _ Preferred Apartment Communities Inc. (APTS) on Monday reported a key measure of profitability in its first quarter. The results surpassed Wall Street expectations.

The real estate investment trust, based in Atlanta, said it had funds from operations of $14.7 million, or 37 cents per share, in the period.

The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for funds from operations of 33 cents per share.

Funds from operations is a closely watched measure in the REIT industry. It takes net income and adds back items such as depreciation and amortization.

The company said it had a loss of $5.6 million, or 14 cents per share.

The real estate investment trust posted revenue of $90.4 million in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Three analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $89.6 million.

Preferred Apartment Communities expects full-year funds from operations to be $1.43 to $1.47 per share, with revenue in the range of $400 million to $440 million.

The company's shares have declined 27 percent since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Monday, shares hit $14.72, a climb of 4 percent in the last 12 months.

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