AMN Healthcare Services Inc. (NYSE: AHS), the largest U.S. healthcare staffing firm, reported fourth-quarter revenue fell 0.3 percent year over year to $248.7 million, within the company’s guidance of $246 million to $250 million.

Locum tenens staffing revenue rose 18.1 percent in the fourth quarter to $74.1 million on a year-over-year basis.

Physician permanent placement revenue rose 3.6 percent in the fourth quarter to $10.5 million.

However, revenue in AMN’s nurse and allied healthcare staffing division, the company’s largest segment, fell 6.2 percent in the fourth quarter to $164.1 million. This segment includes Shiftwise, a healthcare vendor management system acquired by AMN in November.

Fourth-quarter gross margin improved to 29.8 percent from 28.5 percent in the year-ago quarter. The company attributed the increase to gross margin improvement in the locum tenens staffing segment and the nurse and allied healthcare staffing segment.

AMN’s fourth-quarter net income rose 18.0 percent to $8.4 million from $7.1 million in the fourth quarter of last year.

Shares of AMN rose 6.5 percent in early afternoon trading. The company had a market cap of approximately $671.26 million, according to Yahoo!

Full-year revenue rose 6.1 percent to $1.01 billion, and full-year net income rose 92.2 percent to $32.9 million.