Magna International reported much stronger than expected quarterly results on Friday, with sales up about two-thirds on the back of a healthy pickup in the global auto market, sending the auto parts maker's shares up more than 9 percent.

Magna also raised its quarterly dividend to 30 cents a share from 18 cents, citing better expectations for vehicle production in its key markets.

The company said it earned $293 million, or $2.59 a share, in the second quarter. That compared with a loss of $205 million, or $1.83 a share, in the year earlier period, when the auto sector was in turmoil and Chrysler and General Motors Co were operating under bankruptcy protection.

Revenue rose 63 percent to $6.05 billion.

Analysts expected the Aurora, Ontario-based company to earn $1.46 a share on revenue of $5.4 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Canaccord Genuity analyst David Tyerman said the results were awesome.

I'm not sure I saw anything particularly negative, and I really do think there are going to be significant increases in forecasts coming out of this, he said.

All of this has positive implications versus my forecast and, I suspect, most of the folks on the Street -- and the stock is still pretty cheap.

Magna said it now expects 2010 consolidated sales of $22 billion to $23 billion, based on full-year light vehicle production volumes of about 11.5 million units in North America. That was up from an earlier estimate of $21 billion to $22 billion.

The company said light vehicle production -- cars and light trucks -- was up 75 percent in North America and 13 percent in Western Europe in the second quarter.

Magna's content per vehicle in North America and Europe rose by 27 percent and 8 percent respectively.

The company also assembles complete vehicles in Europe for automakers such as BMW , Peugeot

and Saab . It said sales of complete vehicle assemblies increased 39 percent in the quarter, with volumes up 59 percent.

Himanshu Patel, an analyst at J.P. Morgan in New York, said revenues at Magna outpaced growth in the overall auto industry.

Magna's outperformance to the industry production growth recorded in 2Q was impressive, particularly in North America, he said in a note.

Shares of Magna were up C$6.97, or 9.2 percent, at C$82.70 on the Toronto Stock Exchange shortly after the market opened.

The stock is up around 27 percent since early May, when Magna announced a plan to collapse its dual-class share structure by paying founder Frank Stronach nearly $1 billion to give up his controlling stake.

A majority of subordinate share holders approved the plan late last month, even though some said the payoff to Stronach was unreasonable, fundamentally unfair and set a bad precedent.

There will be a hearing in Ontario Superior Court next week to decide whether the company can go ahead with the plan.

($1=$1.02 Canadian)

(Additional reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Rob Wilson)