Green Plains Renewable Energy Inc. released its fourth quarter results today. The company posted a profitable fourth quarter and expects the trend to be continued in the current fiscal.

The investors are looking highly encouraged by the results as the stock climbed more than 20% in early trading of Monday. The stock was trading at $ 17.00 at 12:50 p. m. after making 30 months high of $17.14.

Earlier in the morning, the fourth largest U. S. ethanol producer released its fourth quarter results. The company posted net income of $23.1 million or 90 cents per share in the fourth quarter while in the same period last year the company posted a loss of $1.85 million or 8 cents per share. The result of the fourth quarter topped the expectations of the market.

For the fourth quarter, the company posted revenue of $436.7 million increasing by 138% while in the same quarter last year the revenue was posted $183.2 million by the company.

Also, the ethanol sales of the company grew by 80% and were posted $235.9 million in Q4. In the fourth quarter the company produced 122 million gallons of ethanol exceeding its expected capacity. Also the increased ethanol prices during the quarter helped the revenue to grow in the fourth quarter as the ethanol prices on the Chicago Board of Trade averaged $1.949 a gallon, 15% higher than in the fourth quarter of last year.