UPDATE 1-Validus Q3 oper EPS tops Street

* Q3 oper EPS $1.71 vs est $1.52

* Net premiums earned up 10 pct

* Says to buy back $400 mln of common shares

Nov 5 (Reuters) - Bermuda reinsurer Validus Holdings Ltd (VR.N) posted a quarterly operating profit exceeding analysts' estimates, aided in part by a 10 percent rise in net premiums earned, and said it would buy back $400 million of its common stock.

The company earned $499.2 million, or $5.21 per share for the third quarter, compared with a net loss of $126.3 million, or $1.71 a share, a year earlier.

Operating profit, the favorite measure of profitability for insurance analysts as it excludes investment gains and losses, stood at $1.52 a share.

Analysts were looking for a profit of $1.40 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company closed its $1.77 billion acquisition of IPC Holdings in September, after a bitter and months-long battle to acquire the rival reinsurer, challenging the plans of another Bermuda insurer, Max Capital Group Ltd (MXGL.O).

The acquisition of IPC greatly increases Validus' capacity to sell reinsurance policies at an opportune time since the prices for this type of coverage have been on the rise.

Reinsurers essentially provide insurance to other insurers, allowing the risk of loss to be spread among several carriers.

Shares of the company closed at $24.98 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Anurag Kotoky in Bangalore; Editing by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri)