Ford Motor reported its best first-quarter profit in 13 years, driven by strong sales in its home market and demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Ford also said on Tuesday that last month’s earthquake which has hurt the supply chain in Japan has had ‘minimal’ impact on its business, and analysts said Ford may even stand to gain. “Ford continues to get market share. We expect this trend will continue,” said Channing Smith, co-manager of Capital Advisors Growth Fund, which owns Ford shares. “I think Ford and a lot of the other American automakers will take market share from the Japanese.”
Ford is the first US automaker to report earnings since the March earthquake in Japan jolted the global supply chain especially for Japanese makers. While Japanese automakers Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co have said they expect deep cuts in production this year, Ford said its business will not be greatly affected. Lewis Booth, Ford’s chief financial officer, said that so far, since the earthquake in Japan, the automaker has lost the production of 12,000 to 14,000 vehicles in Asia, where it has shut several plants temporarily. Ford beat quarterly earnings expectations by 12 cents a share, which helped send the company’s shares up 3.5 percent to $16.09 in trading before the market opened. Its fourth-quarter 2010 results missed analyst expectations by a wide mark, ending a string of quarters in which Ford easily exceeded expectations.
Any near-term production losses are likely to recover in late 2011 and into 2012, Ford said. Production in Ford’s business regions outside Asia has not yet seen much change. Ford maintained its projections for North American production in the second quarter at 710,000 vehicles. For the first time, Ford disclosed its projected second-quarter global production figure of 1.46 million. Net income increased to $2.55 billion, or 61 cents a share, compared with $2.09 billion, or 50 cents a share, in the year earlier period. It was the highest first-quarter net income since 1998. Excluding one-time items, it earned 62 cents a share, easily topping the 50 cents analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected. It was the seventh straight quarter of operating profit. Revenue rose to $33.1 billion from $28.1 billion last year.
