* Maintains full year sales target of 4-7 percent
* Nine-month sales rise 8.8 percent to 11.4 billion euros
* Nine-month underlying sales growth 3.4 percent
* Shares up 3.9 percent
(Adds detail, analyst comment, share price)
PARIS, July 1 (Reuters) - French catering and services group Sodexo stuck to its earnings targets as healthcare and education contracts, and its vouchers unit compensated for a decline in spending by corporate clients.
The world's second-biggest caterer after Compass Group said it was continuing to target full year sales growth of 4 to 7 percent at constant currency exchange rates and 2 to 5 percent organic growth.
Revenue grew 8.8 percent to 11.4 billion euros ($16.1 billion) in the nine months to May 31.
The group said it was benefiting from more stable public sector contracts while businesses spent less, following staff cuts, factory shutdowns and discretionary spending freezes. It said that this lead to a drop in cafeteria and corporate hospitality sales in North America, its biggest market.
"In this quite difficult environment, our sales pipeline remains very strong although many prospects and clients are taking longer to make decisions," Chief Executive Michel Landel said during a conference call to analysts and reporters.
The company also stuck by its goal of increasing operating profit at constant exchange rates to between 730 million and 760 million euros from 690 million in 2007/08.
Sodexo shares were 3.9 percent higher at 38.0 euros at 1259 GMT, outperforming a 1.4 percent gain on the broader French SBF 120 index.
"Growth has slowed down compared with the first and second quarters, but it is under control, which is satisfying in the current context," Oddo Securities analyst Guillaume Rascoussier said. He welcomed the fact Sodexo had not cut its targets.
Nine-month sales rose 8.2 percent to 10.88 billion euros at Sodexo's food and facilities management services division, and the revenue from service vouchers and cards grew by 24.5 percent to 529 million. Group organic sales growth was 3.4 percent.
The company's food and facilities management services division saw nine-month organic sales slip 0.2 percent in corporate services and grow 6.4 percent and 5.5 percent in healthcare and education, respectively.
Sodexo provides meals to companies, prisons, universities and hospitals, and gift vouchers and smart cards. It employs some 355,000 people in 80 countries. ($1 = 0.7077 euro) (Reporting by James Regan and Noelle Mennella; editing by Karen Foster)