Ford posted an unexpected quarterly profit this afternoon, led by strong results in Europe and South America and a narrowing loss in North America and sending its shares up 5 per cent in premarket trade.
Ford said it expects the rest of 2008 to be challenging, cutting its full-year North American outlook for sales, but said it remains committed to its goal of returning North America and its whole auto business to profitability in 2009.
Ford reported net income of $100 million, or 5 cents per share, compared with a net loss of $282 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier. Ford reported a revenue decline of 8 percent to $39.4 billion, which excludes its Jaguar Land Rover unit that it is selling to Tata Motors Ltd.
Ford reported a profit from continuing operations of $525 million, or 20 cents per share, excluding special items.
Excluding one-time items, analysts on average had expected Ford to report a loss of 14 cents per share, according to Reuters Estimates. It was not immediately clear whether the estimate compared directly to the 20 cents operating earnings.
Like other US automakers, Ford has been struggling with market share losses and a dramatic shift in consumer demand away from large sport utility vehicles to cars and smaller crossover SUVs built on passenger car platforms.
Ford was surpassed by Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp as second largest car seller in the United States last year and the US automaker has offered buyouts to its 54,000 United Auto Workers-represented employees.
The company said 4,200 workers accepted buyouts in the latest round and said that it would offer more buyouts targeted to specific plants. It did not give a target for the earlier buyout plan or for the new targeted buyouts.