Bare Escentuals Q3 tops market, shares riseBY Reuters
— 4:33 PM ET 10/29/2009
* Q3 EPS $0.24 vs est $0.21

* Q3 rev $135.7 mln vs est $131.6 mln

* Shares rise 8 pct after the bell

Oct 29 (Reuters) - Cosmetics maker Bare Escentuals Inc (BARE

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) posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit helped by higher sales in its North American retail segment and lower cost of goods, sending its shares up 8 percent.

The company, which sells skin care and body care products under the bareMinerals, RareMinerals and its namesake brands, earned $22.6 million, or 24 cents a share, for the quarter compared with 22.9 million, or 25 cents a share, a year ago.

Sales at San Francisco-based Bare Escentuals (BARE

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), which rolled out its first retail store in 1976 but went public only 30 years later, rose 4 percent to $135.7 million.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 21 cents a share, before items, on revenue of $131.6 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.