Yahoo Inc's third-quarter profit more than tripled from a year ago, beating Wall Street estimates and sending its shares climbing 3 percent.

Yahoo said on Tuesday that revenue in the three months ended September 30 was $1.575 billion, compared with $1.78 billion in the year-ago period and $1.57 billion in the second quarter.

Excluding traffic acquisition costs that Yahoo shares with partners, net revenue was $1.13 billion, versus the average $1.12 billion forecast by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Yahoo said net income was $187.8 million, or 13 cents a share, up from $54.3 million, or 4 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts were looking for 7 cents per share.

Yahoo said revenue in the fourth quarter would range from $1.6 billion to $1.7 billion. The company did not say what its traffic acquisition costs would be next quarter. Wall Street was expecting fourth-quarter revenue of $1.22 billion, excluding traffic acquisition costs.

Shares of Yahoo, the second most popular Internet destination in the United States and one of the largest sellers of online display advertising, rose 53 cents to $17.70 in after-hours trade on Tuesday.

Yahoo's stock is up about 20 percent since early August, regaining the ground it lost following the company's announcement of a 10-year deal to outsource its search technology to Microsoft Corp .

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

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