Pearson says makes "solid" start to year, strong pound drags

* 1 pct rise in Q1 underlying revenue at constant currency

* Strong pound results in sales falling 6 percent

* Shares rise as much as 4 pct (Adds analyst reaction, shares)

LONDON, April 25 (Reuters) - Education group Pearson (Dusseldorf: PES.DU - news) said it made a "solid" start to the year, although the strength of the pound against the dollar and some currencies in emerging markets caused headline sales to fall 6 percent in the first quarter.

The British group, which also owns the Financial Times newspaper, said on Friday that sales at constant exchange rates, excluding its Penguin (SES: E1:P13.SI - news) publishing arm which it has merged with Random House and the disposal of Mergermarket, increased by an underlying 1 percent to 900 million pounds ($1.5 billion).

Shares in the group rose as much as 4 percent to an eight-week high of 1,093 pence after the trading update, topping the FTSE 100 index on Friday, as analysts at Citi said underlying revenue growth of 1 percent beat its forecast of a 3-5 percent decline.

The stock, however, remains a long way adrift of the 1,341 pence level it was at the end of 2013.

Citi said it would be wrong to overstate the importance for Pearson (NYSE: PSO - news) of the first quarter, which accounts for less than 20 percent of the overall annual revenue, but 1 percent was still a creditable number for the rise in underlying revenue.

"We don't see the first quarter in itself as a catalyst, but we continue to think investors should revisit Pearson as a potential value opportunity" it said.

Pearson said the impact of the strong pound and restructuring charges would result in first-half adjusted earnings per share (EPS) falling on a year ago, but it would still come in between 62 pence and 67 pence for the full year. ($1 = 0.5953 British Pounds) (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Kate Holton and Alison Williams)