Chew On That: Ford Announces $8.3 Billion Profit

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Ford did not disappoint and today announced its biggest annual profit in a decade. According to a Ford release, the company booked $8.3 billion in pre-tax profits for 2010. That is a $3.8 billion increase from a year ago.

Ford ended 2010 with Automotive gross cash exceeding debt by $1.4 billion, an improvement of $10.1 billion from year end 2009. Ford ended 2010 with $20.5 billion of Automotive gross cash, and a debt of $19.1 billion.

Fourth-quarter net income fell to 5 cents per share from 25 cents per share after a $960 million charge for completing a debt conversion in the third quarter. The fickle stock market did not like that. The F share lost 6.3 percent in premarket trading. It dragged down GM,which lost 2.1 percent to $37.84 before the bell.

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • GS650G GS650G on Jan 28, 2011

    Ford is up 50% since last summer, the fickle stock market seems to be rewarding Ford for a job well done.

  • Motorhead10 Motorhead10 on Jan 28, 2011

    Technically Ford did disappoint. Wall Street (I know, the root of all evil) was expecting adjusted EPS of $0.48, Ford did $0.30. Also, the operating loss in Europe is a concern. The stock was down almost 4% in the pre-market. But that's just the "smart money" - Back envelope look at the numbers was operating profit of $1000 per vehicle globally (4.8% op margin). At current global share, every million units to the world total gets Ford $83 mn in operating profit at steady margins. Being the "dumb money", I'd feel pretty good about Ford longer term and consider a selloff as a "limited-time-only, price rollback" sale. My concern would be that except for interest expense, there are not a whole lot of costs to take out of the system presently. So rev and earnings growth has to come from increasing volumes and/or market share grab. Which is mostly fine for the US and BRICs. However, with the ramp in production will come a ramp in related costs. Plus, raw materials should be a concern as will be labor costs as profitability is established - equality of gain and all that. Looks to me like cost structure will never be as lean as it is in this post-carpocolypse window. I worry about business as usual as business returns to usual.

  • Zackman Zackman on Jan 28, 2011

    That's great for Ford, but they're certainly not out of the woods anymore than GM or Chrysler is. All the OEMs are fighting for market share in what certainly will be a shrinking market as the world system races to the bottom. I think they'd be doing far better if they re-named the Taurus to the Galaxie 500 as god intended - it certainly looks like it should carry that name. It would sell better, and I may actually entertain the thought of buying one.

    • See 3 previous
    • Sinistermisterman Sinistermisterman on Jan 28, 2011

      "No company, in any industry, ever has been, or ever will be, out of the woods!!! The competition is always looking to eat your lunch." Amen to that. Never, EVER rest on your laurels. Keep innovating, keep pushing to be better.

  • Alex_rashev Alex_rashev on Jan 28, 2011

    Could someone explain to me why Ford is down 12 percent? That's it, f%^&k it, I'm BUYING. Shouldda done it when it was 1.50, but at 16.50 it's not bad of a deal, either.

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