The Ford Motor Company announced third-quarter earnings on Friday morning that were down considerably from a year ago, though not as much as Wall Street had predicted.þþThird-quarter profit was $1.2 billion before taxes, the company reported, down $1.4 billion compared with a year ago. Net income was $835 million, a decrease of $437 million compared with a year ago.þþFord said that excluding one-time costs, its earnings equaled 24 cents a share for the quarter, down considerably from last year, but ahead of the 19 cents a share that Wall Street analysts had predicted. Those figures were helped by “record market share in China,” Ford said.þþThe company said that it was still on track to hit its target of $6 billion in pretax profit for all of 2014, and that it expected “a more profitable 2015” in the range of $8.5 billion to $9.5 billion.þþThird-quarter revenue was down 2 percent from a year ago, and sales volume to dealers down 3 percent. In North America, those figures were even worse: Revenue was down 6 percent and sales down 8 percent, which the company attributed largely to the shutdown of its truck plant in Dearborn, Mich., to retool it for the coming aluminum-bodied F-150 pickup, expected to arrive at dealerships late this year. Ford’s overall operating cash flow was negative $700 million for the quarter, which the company also tied to the F-150.þþ“It is hard to overstate the importance of the F-150 to Ford’s overall health. Perhaps more than any other brand, Ford relies on its iconic truck to drive sales volume and its bottom line,” said Eric Ibara, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book. “So while it may win a lot of awards and generate more than its fair share of media buzz, Ford placed a huge bet on its redesign, and the outcome of that bet may be unknown for a while.”þþFord’s president and chief executive, Mark Fields, said in a news release that the company “continued to introduce an unprecedented number of new vehicles, and invest heavily in the new products and technologies that will deliver strong profitable growth beginning next year.”þ
Source: NY Times
