UPDATE 2-Huron Consulting Q1 profit tops Wall Street

* Q1 adj. EPS $0.79 vs est. $0.55/shr

* Health and education consulting rev up 83 pct

* Reaffirms 2009 outlook

* Shares up about 15 pct (Recasts, add details and share movement)

April 30 (Reuters) - Huron Consulting Group Inc's (HURN.O) quarterly profit beat Wall Street, as revenue from its health and education consulting segment rose 83 percent, and it reaffirmed its outlook for 2009, sending its shares up about 15 percent.

The company said it remains confident of its ability to generate meaningful incremental growth during 2009, and expects the health and education consulting segment to continue to produce strong results.

Recent new client wins and a solid pipeline of new opportunities in legal, and accounting and financial consulting will improve performance of these segments in 2009, Chief Executive Gary Holdren said.

Excluding severance costs, the company earned 79 cents a share in the first quarter, well above analysts' average estimate of 55 cents a share.

On a GAAP basis, it earned $10.3 million, or 51 cents a share, compared with $10.2 million, or 56 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue rose 16.9 percent to $163 million, in-line with estimates.

Revenue from Huron's health and education consulting segment rose to $93.5 million.

In the consulting space, Huron competes with companies such as FTI Consulting Inc (FCN.N), Navigant Consulting Inc (NCI.N) and private players like Ernst & Young [ERNY.UL] and PricewaterhouseCoopers [PWC.UL].

On Wednesday, FTI Consulting, driven by a 61 percent rise in revenue from restructuring and corporate finance, posted a quarterly profit that topped market estimates.

Huron shares were trading up more than 11 percent at $48.35 in morning trade on Nasdaq. They touched a high of $49.99 earlier in the session. (Reporting by Kunal Raina, Sweta Singh in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Himani Sarkar)