UPDATE 1-XTO Energy Q3 beats Wall St, raise output view

* Q3 EPS ex-items 88 cts top Wall St view of 84 cts

* Revenues up 8 pct to $2.29 bln

* Hikes production growth to 23 pct from 20 pct

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - XTO Energy Inc (XTO.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted better-than-expected third quarter profit on Wednesday and raised its full-year production target growth to 23 percent from 20 percent.

Third-quarter profit was $500 million, or 86 cents per share, compared with $521 million, or 94 cents per share in the same quarter a year earlier.

Excluding loss on the value of trading positions, XTO's profit of 88 cents per share topped the 84 cents that analysts had forecast, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenues rose 8 percent to $2.29 billion, slightly above the $2.23 billion that analysts had forecast.

Production in the quarter was 2.95 billion cubic feet equivalent per day, up 23 percent from 2.39 billion cubic feet equivalent per day a year earlier. (Reporting by Matt Daily; Editing by Derek Caney)