Hexagon Q3 profit beats forecast as growth picks up, shares jump
* Q3 pretax profit 113 mln SEK vs forecast 108 mln
* Like-for-like sales growth 8 pct vs 6 pct in Q2
* Shares rise 8 pct (Adds detail, background, shares)
STOCKHOLM, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Measurement technology and software group Hexagon posted a third-quarter pretax profit above expectations on Wednesday and said like-for-like sales growth had strengthened from the previous quarter, sending shares sharply higher.
Pretax earnings at the group, which sells under brands such as Leica Geosystems as well as its own name, rose to 113 million euros ($143 million) from a year-ago 95 million to top a mean forecast of 108 million in a Reuters poll of analysts.
The company, market leader in a specialised sector straddling software and engineering hardware, said like-for-like growth in the quarter was 8 percent, higher than the 6 percent seen in the second quarter.
"...we are back to our long term organic growth trend of 8 percent - something we haven't experienced for several quarters," Hexagon Chief Executive Ola Rollen said in the report.
Hexagon shares rose 8.0 percent at 1224 GMT compared with a 0.6 percent rise in the OMXS All Share index in Stockholm.
Sales at the firm, which counts Trimble Navigation of the U.S. and Japan's Topcon among its top rivals, rose to 649 million euros from 577 million a year earlier, above the 628 million seen by analysts.
The strongest growth was recorded in the Americas in the quarter with like-for-like sales up 11 percent, driven by strong demand from construction, automotive and aerospace clients.
Sales in Europe, the Middle East and Africa grew 7 percent, while Asia grew a more subdued 5 percent, in part due to the slowdown in construction activity in China. (1 US dollar = 0.7877 euro) (Reporting by Johannes Hellstrom; editing by Niklas Pollard)
