LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp raised its full-year profit forecast, boosting investor confidence its turnaround plan has ushered in a new phase of growth and sending shares three percent higher.

Rising prices and improving traffic in its stores gave it leeway to hike its fiscal 2011 outlook. The world's biggest coffee company recently raised prices on large and labor-intensive drinks to offset surging prices for coffee and other commodities, easing concerns that those higher costs would dampen profits.

US sales at restaurants open at least 13 months jumped eight percent in the fiscal fourth quarter from a year ago, driven by a six percent rise in customer visits and a two percent increase in spending per visit.

International same-restaurant sales were up seven percent, helped by a four percent traffic increase and a three percent rise in average ticket.

Those factors, coupled with efficiency efforts and cost controls, prompted the company to hike its earnings target for the current 2011 fiscal year to a range of $1.41 to $1.47 per share, from $1.36 to $1.41 previously. Wall Street's average forecast was for $1.43, near the low end of the new range.

"The increase really is based on the strength of the quarter we just recorded and the momentum we bring into the new year," Starbucks chief financial officer Troy Alstead said in a telephone interview.

Shares in Starbucks, which dipped below $8 in 2006, rose three percent to $30.63 following the company's earnings report.

Seattle-based Starbucks has returned to financial health after closing stores and slashing costs in 2008 and 2009. Some employees, however, said those fixes eroded the cafe culture that made the company great.

Starbucks is eyeing profit growth through new products like Via instant coffee and by expanding its middle-market Seattle's Best brand in the United States and building new cafes in important international markets like China.

"I am convinced that we are about to enter an era of even more opportunity for Starbucks, and am more convinced than ever that our future has never looked brighter," founder and chief executive Howard Schultz said in a statement.

Net income for the fourth quarter ended October 3 rose 86 percent to $278.9 million