UPDATE 1-Molina Healthcare Q3 beats Street, ups FY profit view

* Q3 EPS $0.57 vs est $0.50

* Revenue $1.04 bln vs est $1.03 bln

* Sees FY10 EPS $1.90, up from $1.70

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Molina Healthcare Inc (MOH.N), a health insurer that specializes in Medicaid plans, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by lower medical care costs and higher premiums, and raised its full-year profit outlook for a second time.

July-September net income was $16.2 million, or 57 cents per share, compared with $8.6 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier.

Sales rose 13 percent to $1.04 billion.

Analysts on average were expecting the company to earn 50 cents a share, on revenue of $1.03 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Medical care ratio -- the percentage of premiums spent on medical costs -- fell nearly 3 percent to 84.2 percent.

For 2010, Molina expects to earn $1.90 cents a share, up from its prior view of $1.70 a share.

The Long Beach, California-based company's shares, which have fallen 4 percent since the company raised its full-year earnings outlook in September, were up slightly at $26.81 in after-market trade. They closed at $26.56 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Shravya Jain in Bangalore; Editing by Anne Pallivathuckal)