Forestry and paper company Domtar Corp posted a better quarterly profit, helped by higher pulp shipments, which offset seasonal weakness.

For the October-December quarter, net profit rose to $325 million, or $7.59 a share, from $124 million, or $2.86 a share a year earlier.

Sales fell to $1.42 billion from $1.46 billion last year.

Excluding one-time items, Montreal-based Domtar said it earned $2.41 a share.

Analysts, on average, had expected earnings of $2.88 a share, excluding items, on revenue of $1.35 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company, which has a market cap of about C$3.76 billion, closed at C$88.21 on Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Isheeta Sanghi in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)