* Q3 adj. EBIT down 7.7 pct at 144 mln eur vs fcasts 129 mln
* Q3 sales down 3.1 pct to 1.411 bln eur vs fcasts 1.417 bln
* Lifts full-year outlook for 2009
* Sees sales, oper margin above 2009 level in 2010 * Shares rise 4 percent, outperform DAX index (Adds CFO, analyst comments, share price and detail)
DUESSELDORF, Germany, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Nivea skin care maker Beiersdorf AG expects to return to growth next year helped by cost cutting measures and an improved performance in both its skincare and industrial adhesives business.
Leaner structures and stronger demand lifted Beiersdorf's third-quarter results above analysts' estimates, it said on Tuesday, giving it confidence to raise full-year targets.
"The work on cost efficiency has worked," Chief Financial Officer Bernhard Duettmann told analysts. "We now say that sales development in the fourth quarter will help us to further increase sales in 2009."
The group's sales and operating margin would grow beyond this year's level in 2010 even though markets would remain weak, Duettmann added. "We do not believe that the markets will recover to growth rates that we have seen before the crisis."
Shares in Beiersdorf were up 4 percent at 43.06 euros by 1252 GMT, ranging among the top gainers in Germany's blue-chip DAX index, which was down 1.6 percent.
The Hamburg based company said sales of its industrial products benefited from a pick-up in demand in the automotive and consumer electronic industries.
TREND REVERSAL
Analysts were pleased with the more concrete 2009 outlook.
"Beiersdorf has now given an operating margin target for 2009 and that indicates that the fourth quarter will also be steady," DZ Bank analyst Heinz Mueller said, confirming his "buy" rating.
For 2009, Beiersdorf now aims for an operating margin at its consumer business -- Nivea, Eucerin and La Prairie -- of roughly 11 percent, having earlier aimed to keep it above 10 percent.
In its adhesives business, Tesa, the company now expects to reach an operating margin of at least 2 percent., having earlier targeted a slightly positive result.
"The Tesa business segment is seeing a trend reversal in its industrial business in particular," Chief Executive Thomas Quaas said. CFO Duettmann added the auto industry was recovering slowly, but consumer electronics was coming back stronger.
Third-quarter sales at Tesa declined less than in the previous quarter. Local peer Henkel had reported a similar development last month.
Tesa makes up about 14 percent of Beiersdorf's annual sales.
Beiersdorf's overall third-quarter underlying operating profit of 144 million euros ($212.7 million) easily beat the average estimate in a Reuters poll of analysts, while sales of 1.4 billion euros were in line with estimates.
Beiersdorf competes with L'Oreal, cosmetic groups Clarins and Estee Lauder as well as Henkel.
Data from Thomson Reuters StarMine, which weights analysts' forecasts by their track record, show shares in Beiersdorf trading at about 22 times 12-month forward earnings, at a premium to L'Oreal and Estee Lauder.
L'Oreal is due to report third-quarter results on Thursday after the market closed. ($1=.6769 Euro) (Reporting by Eva Kuehnen; editing by Elaine Hardcastle)