UPDATE 2-Intuit results beat expectations, shares rise

* Q3 EPS ex-items $1.68 vs $1.60 Wall Street view

* Q3 revenue $1.43 bln vs $1.41 bln view

* Consumer tax revenue up 18 pct on year to $777 mln

* Cuts forecast for full-year consumer tax revenue

* Shares rise 3 pct in extended trade (Updates shares, adds comments from company)

By Jim Finkle

NEW YORK, May 20 (Reuters) - Financial software maker Intuit Inc (INTU.O) posted quarterly results on Wednesday that beat Wall Street projections on higher sales of TurboTax tax preparation programs, sending its shares up 3 percent.

TurboTax sales rose 18 percent to $777 million during the quarter as consumers bought its software before the mid-April U.S. tax-filing deadline, buoyed by an increase in use of its Web-based version.

Chief Executive Brad Smith said that Intuit gained 6 points of market share in the online tax preparation market and that the number of customers grew by 36 percent.