UPDATE 2-Southern Co Q3 tops market, sees Q4 profit below view

* Sees Q4 EPS $0.28-$0.30 vs est $0.31

* Q3 EPS beats est by a cent, rev falls 14 pct (Recasts; adds conf call details, analysts comments)

BANGALORE, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Power company Southern Co (SO.N) narrowly beat third-quarter profit view but missed revenue expectations by a wide margin, and forecast a weak fourth-quarter profit as sales continued to be hit by recession.

The company now expects a to earn 28 cents to 30 cents per share or the fourth quarter, compared with analysts' average estimate of 31 cents a share. [ID:nWNAB5932]

"The economy remains fragile...our sales results on a year-over-year basis continued to highlight the fact that this recession will have an impact on our sales for some time," Chief Financial Officer Paul Bowers said on a conference call with analysts.

Bowers said the company is continuing to seek out efficiencies in operating and maintenance activities to help offset the fall in revenue.

Separately, Keybanc Capital Markets analyst Paul Ridzon said he expects "little to modest growth until the economy starts to show a stronger recovery," and downgraded the company's stock to "hold" from "buy."

However, Southern Power, whose third-quarter profit beat consensus estimates by a penny, said it had seen some positive signs emerge.

"We are seeing signs of stabilization and what may be the beginnings of recovery in certain sectors in our region. We realized 11 percent increase in industrial sales over the second quarter of 2009," Chief Executive David Ratcliffe said in a statement. [ID:nWNAB5621]

Shares of the company were down 9 cents at $32.56 in afternoon trade Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. They touched a low of $32.46 earlier in the session. (Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury and Adveith Nair; Editing by Maju Samuel and Gopakumar Warrier)