Ford's Q3 Profit Nearly $1 Billion

Ford Motor Co. (F 7.00) surprised Wall Street when it reported a nearly $1 billion profit for the third quarter, news that sent shares of F more than 8.5% higher ahead of Monday's opening bell.

Ford reported third quarter earnings of $0.26 per share, excluding items, $0.38 better than the First Call consensus that expected a loss of $0.12 per share.  Net income of $997 million marked a $1.2 billion improvement from the same period last year.

Revenues fell 2.5% year-over-year to $30.9 billion, ahead of the $28.31 billion consensus.

Ford showed increased year-over-year market share in North America, South American and Europe.  In the U.S., third quarter market share increased 2.2 percentage points compared to last year.  Europe's market share was 9.2% for the quarter, up 0.6 points from last year.

Ford enjoyed record growth in China as third quarter sales jumped 63%.

The automaker said it reduced its structural costs by $1 billion in the quarter, largely driven by lower manufacturing and engineering costs, which included benefits from improved productivity, personnel reduction actions primarily in North America and Europe, and progress on implementing its common global platforms and product development processes.

Based on its recent performance and present planning assumptions, Ford is changing its full-year 2011 guidance for total company and North American Automotive operations from being "breakeven or better" to "solidly profitable" on a pretax basis excluding special items.

While Ford has upgraded its forecast for 2011, the company is not quite as optimistic for 2010, saying that a likely decrease in European industry volume could more than offset increased U.S. sales volumes.

"Leading indicators are now showing signs of recovery in all of our major markets, however, consumer confidence and labor market conditions remain a concern," said CEO Alan Mulally.