UPDATE 2-Huron Consulting Q3 profit tops Wall Street view

* Q3 profit, rev beat estimates

* Shares rise 10 pct

* Cuts upper end of 2008 earnings view

* Cuts revenue outlook for 2008 (Adds conference call details, share movement)

By Sweta Singh

BANGALORE, Oct 30 (Reuters) - Huron Consulting Group Inc (HURN.O) posted quarterly profit that edged past Wall Street targets, helped by higher revenue from its health and education consulting segment, but cut its 2008 revenue outlook.

Huron stock, which had shed about 45 percent so far this year, rose 10 percent on Thursday.

The stock has been down so much and it could be that people who were shorting it did not see a huge disaster in getting out of the stock, JMP Securities analyst Kevane Wong told Reuters.

"I see no particular reason for celebration," Wong said.

Third-quarter results were hurt by the Stockamp acquisition due to the timing of revenue recognition, resulting in lower reported revenue and operating income included within the health and education consulting segment.

In July, Huron bought management consulting firm Stockamp & Associates Inc for about $219 million to expand into the hospital consulting space.

Revenue from the health and education consulting, its biggest segment, rose 56 percent to $77.7 million.

Seventy percent or more of the revenue will come from the health and education and legal segments in 2009, and the company will continue to use its capital to grow these practices and products, Chief Executive Officer Gary Holdren said in a call with analysts.

Huron's financial consulting segment revenue fell 15 percent, even though the company had expected it to bounce back in the quarter, given increased demand for advisory services in the midst of global financial crisis.

"We are optimistic that business (in the financial segment) should increase sometime in 2009, we just don't know when," Holdren said in the call.

The company is being cautious on its outlook given the condition in the financial markets, Wong said.

For 2008, the company expects earnings of between $2.12 and $2.20 a share on revenue of $621 million to $629 million. In August, it had forecast earnings of $2.10 to $2.39 a share on revenue of $625 million to $650 million.

The company expects to end the fourth quarter with 1,550 full time billable consultants and 875 full time employees (FTEs).

The company had 1,488 full-time billable consultants and 947 FTEs at the end of the third quarter.

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

Shares of the company were up 9 percent at $48.07 in afternoon trade on Nasdaq. They had touched a high of $48.70 earlier.

For the press release, please click [ID:nBw305267a]

For the alerts, please click [ID:nWNAB4803] (Editing by Jarshad Kakkrakandy, Amitha Rajan, Deepak Kannan)