UPDATE 1-Mirant Q3 adj profit beats Wall Street

* Q3 adj. EPS cont ops $1.63 vs est. $1.16

* Rev down 79 pct

* Cuts 2009 adj. EBITDA outlook

Nov 6 (Reuters) - U.S. power producer Mirant Corp (MIR.N) reported better-than-expected third-quarter profit, helped by higher realized value of hedges and results from proprietary trading activities.

The company's hedging strategy mitigated the impact of low commodity prices, Chief Executive Edward Muller said in a statement.

For the latest third quarter, Mirant earned $55 million from continuing operations, or 38 cents a share, compared with $1.61 billion, or $8.69 a share, a year earlier.

Quarterly operating revenue fell about 79 percent to $454 million.

Excluding items, income from continuing operations was $1.63 a share, compared with $1.17 a share a year ago.

Analysts on average expected the company to report earnings of $1.16 cents per share, excluding items, on revenue of $734.3 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Mirant, of Atlanta, owns and operates more than 10,000 MW of generating capacity and markets energy commodities in the United States.

Mirant reduced its 2009 adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) forecast to $860 million from $873 million, but raised its 2010 adjusted EBITDA view to $617 million from $517 million.

Shares of the company closed at $14.71 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Thyagaraju Adinarayan in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)