Adidas ups 2011 sales goal on U.S., China demand

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Adidas <ADSGn.DE>, the world's second largest sporting goods company, raised its sales outlook for the second time this year after the U.S., Chinese and Russian markets drove first-quarter growth.

Adidas, which competes with Nike <NKE.N> and Puma <PUMG.DE>, said it now expects 2011 sales to increase at a high single-digit percentage rate.

Its previous target was for 2011 sales to rise by a medium to high single-digit percentage rate.

Local rival Puma last month increased its sales goal for the year after growth in the United States helped to drive record sales.

Adidas group sales jumped 18 percent on a currency-neutral basis to 3.273 billion euros ($4.57 billion), while operating profit came in at 313 million.

Analysts had expected the group to report first-quarter sales of 3.01 billion euros and operating profit of 283 million, according to a Reuters poll.

(Reporting by Victoria Bryan)

($1=.7158 Euro)