BRUSSELS, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Belgian display and visual systems company Barco reported a 15 percent like-for-like rise in third-quarter operating profit on Wednesday and slightly raised its full year sales guidance.

It also announced the return of 70 million euros to shareholders through a capital reduction.

Barco, whose diplays are used as scoreboards for sports stadiums, medical imaging systems, flight simulators and at pop concerts, said EBIT (earnings before interest and tax) rose to 8.2 million euros ($11.65 million).

A Reuters poll of four analysts gave an average forecast EBIT of 9.5 million euros.

Barco gave two sets of figures, including and excluding units sold and about to be sold.

Based on continuing operations, sales rose 13.0 percent to 173.1 million euros and net profit went up 26.2 percent to 8.5 million euros, against the average analyst forecast for sales of 163.7 million euros and net profit of 8.2 million euros.

The media & entertainment division boosted sales by nearly 26 percent, helped by a mall project in Dubai and a Chinese digital cinema project, while security & monitoring division sales increased by 23 percent.

Barco, which has slimmed down with the recent and impending sales of its manufacturing service and textile product control operations, said it now expeced 2007 sales growth of between 7 and 9 percent.

It had previously guided for growth between 6 and 9 percent.

The weak dollar, which hit a low of $1.4348 to the euro on Monday, limited sales growth. Barco said its sales would have otherwise have grown by 16.5 percent.

The dollar was around 8 percent weaker in the third-quarter year-on-year. About 45 percent of Barco's sales are dollar-denominated and a 10 percent decline in the dollar to the euro is estimated to cut EBIT by some 5 to 10 percent.

Barco has reorganised its structure in a bid to bolster growth. Its key divisions now are medical imaging, media & events and security & monitoring.

((Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Andrew Callus; Reuters messaging: [email protected]; +32 2 287 6838, fax +32 2 230 7710; [email protected]))

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