UPDATE 3-Danaher profit jumps 26 percent, beats estimates

* Q2 shr ex-items $0.56 vs market view $0.53

* Q2 sales rise 24 pct to $3.31 bln

* Sees 2010 adjusted EPS $2.16 to $2.23 (Adds outlook, CEO comment from conference call)

NEW YORK, July 22 (Reuters) - Industrial conglomerate Danaher Corp (DHR.N) reported a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday and said the economic environment was improving, but it expects more moderate sales growth in the last two quarters of the year.

"We continue to see encouraging signs across the global economy," Chief Executive Larry Culp said on a conference call. "Emerging markets were our best performers."

Emerging markets now account for about a fifth of Danaher's sales, compared with about 16 percent three years ago, Culp said.

Danaher, which has previously described its attitude toward guidance as conservative, raised its full-year profit forecast to a range of $2.16 to $2.23 per share, which brackets Wall Street estimates of $2.19 per share.

Second-quarter net earnings rose 26 percent to $372.5 million, or 55 cents per share, from $295.7 million, or 44 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, Danaher earned 56 cents per share, 3 cents ahead of analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The result was also above the company's own April estimate.

Revenue rose 24 percent to $3.31 billion, compared with Wall Street forecasts of $3.21 billion. Emerging markets led the sales growth, with particular strength in China.

The company, which makes professional tools and product-identification technology, as well as water testing equipment, also said it expected adjusted third-quatrer earnings of 50 cents to 55 cents per share. Analysts were looking for third-quarter profit of 55 cents per share.

In a regulatory filing, Danaher said that sales growth would likely moderate in the remaining two quarters of the year.

The company posted the sharpest year-over-year increases in operating profit in its professional instrumentation and industrial technologies segments, partly reflecting the six acquisitions it completed during the quarter.

Those two segments also showed sharply higher profit margins, but margins were down in the medical technologies segment, in part reflecting acquisition costs.

Danaher this month completed a $1.2 billion tool joint venture with Cooper Industries Plc (CBE.N) that will compete with tool makers Stanley Black & Decker (SWK.N) and Snap-On (SNA.N).

CEO Culp said the company had about $2 billion ready for further acquisitions.

(Reporting by Nick Zieminski; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Derek Caney and Ted Kerr)