WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Ashland Inc. (ASH) on Tuesday reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $165 million, after reporting a profit in the same period a year earlier.

On a per-share basis, the Wilmington, Delaware-based company said it had a loss of $3.50. Earnings, adjusted for one-time gains and costs, were 28 cents per share.

The results surpassed Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 20 cents per share.

The chemical company posted revenue of $405 million in the period.

Ashland shares have decreased slightly since the beginning of the year. In the final minutes of trading on Tuesday, shares hit $71.16, a fall of 12% 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 ASH at https://www.zacks.com/ap/ASH