Ford’s quarterly profit increases by 71%

[Roland99]

Source: MarketWatch

Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday third-quarter net income rose 71%, accelerating past analyst targets, as the resurgent auto giant moved to pay down debt and meet its pension obligations.

Ford saw its profit rise to $1.7 billion, or 43 cents a share, from $997 million, or 29 cents, earned in the year-ago third quarter.

Excluding items, net income would have totaled 48 cents a share in the latest period.

Quarterly revenue fell slightly, to $29 billion from $30.3 billion. Excluding Volvo revenue from 2009, revenue grew by $1.7 billion, the Dearborn, Mich.-based company said.

Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ford-profit-climbs-by-71-2010-10-26?dist=beforebell

[MindPilot]

1. Seems like every other car I see on the road is a '10 Mustang

Popular car.

[nyy1998]

9. I see a lot of Edges and Focuses....good for Ford, they're making reasonably priced good cars

[Demeter]

2. On US Sales?

or is it all foreign?

[Roland99]

3. From the WSJ >>>>

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20101026-706168.html

In the quarter, Ford's North America unit reported a pre-tax operating profit of $1.6 billion compared with $314 million a year earlier. Revenue jumped to $16.2 billion from $13.4 billion.

Much of that increase was driven by workers who are buying pickup trucks as they return to jobs amid a slowly strengthening economy. The company sold 145,534 of its popular F-series pickup trucks, a 25% increase over the same period last year.

Ford reported a profit in all of its business segments around the world except Europe, which had a pre-tax loss of $196 million compared with a profit of $131 million a year earlier. The decline stems from lower industry volume and higher costs to support new vehicle introductions.

Booth said the Europe unit will be profitable this quarter.

[OnlinePoker]

4. A company that gets what to do when they have the cash...

"Ford also said it would pay down $2 billion of debt. It’ll use cash to fully prepay the remaining $3.6 billion of debt owed to a health-care trust for retirees."

[dotymed]

5. They screwed their retirees and workers bad.

I have many relatives and friends who retired or were laid of from Ford in Indiana. Of course, they were replaced with low paid workers.
The retirees have watched their benefits shrink and disappear just as, due to their age, they really needed them. Oh well, at least the CEO's do great...

[No Elephants]

6. Will American workers get any praise for this?

[Le Taz Hot]

7. Ford was the only one

of the Big Three U.S. auto makers that didn't take bailout money.

[closeupready]

8. I think this is terrific news.

Way to go, Ford. K&R