UPDATE 2-Lorillard net down on higher costs

* EPS $1.52 vs Wall St $1.51 view

* Cigarette volume falls 4 pct

* Shares unchanged (Adds sales, details)

CHICAGO, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Newport cigarette maker Lorillard Inc (LO.N) posted a 6 percent drop in net income, pressured by higher manufacturing, pension and legal costs.

Net income fell to $242 million, or $1.52 a share, from $258 million, or $1.53 a share, a year earlier.

Analysts on average were expecting $1.51 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company shipped 9.05 billion cigarettes, down 4 percent from a year earlier. A jump in shipments of the lower-priced Maverick brand helped mitigate a 6.9 percent drop for the company's full-priced brands.

The decline in cigarette shipments was less severe than the drops of 7.6 percent posted by Reynolds American Inc (RAI.N) and 11.4 percent by Altria Group Inc (MO.N).

U.S. cigarette makers, which have seen demand decline steadily for years, were hit in 2009 by a sharp increase in the federal cigarette tax in the midst of a slumping economy, which pushed some smokers to trade down to lower-priced brands like Maverick.

The companies also have suffered from new fees required as part of the law that gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration oversight authority over the tobacco industry.

Lorillard said sales, excluding excise taxes, rose 2.2 percent to $932 million.

The company's shares were unchanged at $74.50 in light trading before the market opened. (Reporting by Brad Dorfman, editing by Maureen Bavdek and Lisa Von Ahn)