UPDATE 1-Title insurer Fidelity's Q2 profit rises 52 pct

* Q2 EPS $0.61 vs $0.40 yr ago

* Sedgwick stake sale aids Q2

July 21 (Reuters) - Fidelity National Financial Inc (FNF.N) posted a 52 percent rise in quarterly profit as the No.1 U.S. title insurer gained from a recent sale of its stake in Sedgwick Claims Management Services Inc.

Net income attributable to shareholders for the second quarter was $139.6 million, or 61 cents a share, compared with $91.9 million, or 40 cents a share, a year back.

Analysts were looking for a profit of 35 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Fidelity booked a pretax gain of about $98 million from the sale of Sedgwick, which was bought over by private equity firms Stone Point Capital LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC for about $1.1 billion in April. [ID:nSGE63J0JO]

Title insurance guarantees that property owners have title to property and can legally transfer that title. Many lenders require that buyers have the insurance before extending loans.

Shares of the Jacksonville, Florida-based company closed at $13.54 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. They have fallen 20 percent since hitting a 52-week high of $17 last October. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)