May 26 (Reuters) - Women's clothing retailer Dress Barn Inc's (DBRN.O) adjusted third-quarter profit scraped past market estimates, driven mainly by sales at its Justice brand.

Photo: www.dressbarn.com

The retailer forecast comparable sales for the fourth quarter to rise in the mid-single digits and kept its 2010 earnings-per-share outlook of between $1.80 and $1.85.

The Justice brand came to Dress Barn in November last year after the retailer bought teen-apparel seller Tween Brands Inc to capture a larger share of the tween girls' apparel market.

Same-store sales for the third quarter grew 14 percent.

"Our comparable store-sales increase in the third quarter was driven both by growth in transactions and average transaction size," Chief Executive David Jaffe said on a conference call with analysts.

Dress Barn, which operates its namesake, Maurices and Justice brands earned $48.0 million, or 59 cents a share, for the quarter ending April 24, compared with $23.1 million, or 37 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, it earned 60 cents a share.

Analysts on average were looking for a profit of 59 cents a share, before items, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue jumped 77 percent to $665.5 million, beating analysts' expectations of $645.8 million.

Sales at the Justice brand accounted for $245.1 million in the quarter, the company said.

On the conference call, Dress Barn said it was growing market share in the Justice brand.

Shares of the Suffern, New York-based company closed at $26.63 Wednesday 26 May on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Vidya Lakshmi in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)