UPDATE 2-Amdocs Q4 profit beats market, sees strong Q1

* Q4 adj. EPS $0.53 vs est. of $0.49

* Q4 rev $707.4 mln

* Sees Q1 EPS $0.51-$0.55 vs est of $0.50

* Sees improvement in deal activity in Q4

* Shares up 6 pct after-market (Recasts; Adds conference call details, updates share movement)

Nov 4 (Reuters) - Amdocs Ltd (DOX.N), which makes phone-billing and customer-management software, posted better-than-expected quarterly profit, as customer willingness to sign new deals improved, and forecast a strong first quarter, sending its shares up 6 percent after the bell.

Stabilization in the company's managed services, and cable and satellite businesses, which supported the fourth quarter results, will continue into fiscal 2010, the company said on a conference call with analysts. The company, however, said its project-oriented business shrunk in 2009, resulting in fewer transformational deals and a disproportionate decline in its European business.

Though there was evidence of smaller investments picking up in the project-oriented business, a near-term recovery in large transformational deals in Europe was not in sight, the company said.

For the current quarter, the company expects to earn between 51 cents and 55 cents a share, excluding items, on revenue of about $705 million to $725 million. [ID:nWNAB0219]

"While indicators are still mixed across our market and the global economy, we are cautiously optimistic that our business is stabilizing to slightly improving," Dov Baharav, CEO of Amdocs Management Ltd, said in a statement.

In the fourth quarter, the company earned 53 cents a share, excluding items, beating analysts' average estimates of 49 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Shares of the company were up 6 percent at $26.00 in trading after the bell. They closed at $24.47 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)