UPDATE 2-Titan Machinery Q1 beats Street; shrs hit lifetime high

(Recasts; adds details, share movement, conference call details, analyst's comments)

By Adheesha Sarkar

BANGALORE, June 16 (Reuters) - Titan Machinery Inc (TITN.O), posted quarterly results that topped Wall Street's targets, boosted by higher sales of farm equipment, and it raised its full-year outlook, sending its shares to a lifetime high.

The company, which owns and operates agricultural and construction equipment stores, reported a four-fold rise in first-quarter profit to $3.4 million, or 24 cents a share, from $800,000, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue nearly doubled to $152.6 million.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 13 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $119.5 million, according to Reuters estimates.

Equipment sales, which chip in about 80 percent of the company's total revenue, also rose two-fold to $120.9 million.

"A delayed planting season due to rain may have allowed customers to increase their equipment, parts and services purchases as opposed to a more normal quarter," Chief Financial Officer Peter Christianson said in a conference call.

"Weather helped benefit this quarter, which probably means that there is less of a benefit from equipment sales in the future quarters," analyst Robert Evans from Craig Hallum Capital said by phone.

Titan expects full-year earnings of 86 cents to 91 cents a share, compared with its prior view of 77 cents to 82 cents a share.

The company, which went public in December last year, now sees revenue of $575 million to $625 million for the year. It had previously forecast revenue of $550 million to $600 million.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 79 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $588.6 million for the period.

With crop prices on the rise, the farm sector is at a historical high, Craig Hallum's Evans said.

Even with the general economy facing a slowdown, farmers are able to spend more on agricultural equipment to get the highest yield, Evans added.

"Higher revenue generated from equipment sales in this quarter reflects a robust agri-economy," CFO Christianson said.

Shares of the company were trading up more than 6 percent at $29.75 in afternoon trade, after touching a lifetime high of $31.45 earlier in the day on Nasdaq. (Editing by Anil D'Silva)