UPDATE 2-Coloplast Q4 EBIT tops consensus, to buy back shares

* Q4 EBIT 406 mln DKK vs fcast 379 mln DKK

* CEO says earnings up on back of cost cuts

* Plans to buy up to 1 bln DKK ($200 mln) worth of shares

* Sees f/y sales growth 4-5 pct, EBIT margin 16-17 pct

* Shares rise 3 pct

(Adds CEO, analysts, share, detail, background)

By Anna Ringstrom and Teis Jensen

COPENHAGEN, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Danish healthcare products maker Coloplast (COLOb.CO) said cost cuts helped it beat forecasts for quarterly operating profit, and stabilising financial markets meant it would now restart a suspended share buyback programme.

Coloplast, which makes products ranging from urine bags to wound dressings and other patient care supplies, proposed a dividend of 7 crowns for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30.

Quarterly profit before interest and tax rose to 406 million Danish crowns ($81.02 million) from a year-earlier 101 million, compared with a mean forecast in a Reuters survey for 379 million.

Chief Executive Officer Lars Rasmussen told Reuters the improvement was mainly due to cost cuts. "We have cut back extensively on administrative and production costs," he said.

Quarterly group sales were up 5 percent to 2.26 billion crowns, undershooting a forecast for 2.29 billion.

Coloplast forecast a fiscal 2009-10 yearly operating profit margin of 16 to 17 percent, with organic sales growth of 6-7 percent and total sales growth of 4-5 percent.

Sydbank analyst Rune Dahl said the sales growth forecast was slightly disappointing although probably cautious, and raised his recommendation on the share to "neutral" from "underweight".

He said the firm seemed to be closing in on its target for a 20-percent operating margin. "We see positive tendencies in the United States, and they are in control of their costs."

Coloplast forecast capital expenditure of 500-600 million crowns and an effective tax rate of around 27 percent.

RENEWED BUYBACK PLANS

Shares in Coloplast rose 3 percent at 1010 GMT, outperforming Copenhagen's blue-chip index .OMXC20.

Coloplast in August cancelled the second half of a buyback programme planned for 2009, saying the financial markets were not advantageous and it would instead boost reserves ahead of possible acquisitions. [ID:nLE442588]

"Considering the continuing stable developments in the financial markets and the strong cash flow this year, the board of directors has resolved to launch a share buy-back programme of up to 1 billion crowns up until the end of the financial year 2010/11," the firm said on Friday.

Alm. Brand Markets analyst Michael Friis Jorgensen said it was good news: "This indicates they have no bigger acquisitions lined up and, more importantly, it shows the wider financing situation is improving."

The programme needs shareholders' authorisation at the firm's annual general meeting on Dec. 1.

Rasmussen said challenges at operations in Germany that have been hurt by healthcare reforms that brought competitive tendering and new payment methods, were now under control and its sales in the country had stabilised. [ID:nL5942883] ($1=5.011 Danish Crown) (Editing by David Holmes and Simon Jessop)