L’Oreal SA on Thursday reported a year-on-year rise in consolidated nine-month sales but fell short of analysts’ expectations. The French cosmetics company reported sales of 10.8 billion euros ($10.69 billion) for the first nine months of 2002, up 3.9% 10.4 billion euros in the same year-earlier period. This represented an 8.6% increase based on a constant group structure and exchange rates, a growth rate identical to that recorded in the first six months of 2002.But the nine-month f...