The company has made a push into driverless vehicles. But Ford’s latest SUVs helped, too.
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Ford reported quarterly profit excluding one-time items of 58 cents a share after a 65-cent loss a year earlier.
Revenue was $40.3 billion for the quarter and $149.6 billion for the year. Ford expects 2016 to be as strong or better.
“We promised a breakthrough year in 2015, and we delivered”, said Mark Fields, Ford president and CEO.
Those new products have helped margins. South America remained weak, but Shanks noted that even in that volatile region, Ford managed to command higher prices.
The No. 2 USA automaker earned a pre-tax profit for the year of $10.8 billion, and net income of $7.4 billion.
North American remained the most important market for Ford.
Ford’s recovery in Europe has been gathering steam as well. Ford said it will have another strong year in the USA and higher pre-tax earnings in Europe and Asia, with flat results in the Middle East and Africa.
UAW hourly workers will share in the good news.
China Photos/Getty ImagesChina will continue to be unpredictable for Ford. Ford CFO Bob Shanks speaks on “Bloomberg Markets”.
In Europe, Ford brought in an operating profit of $259m, compared with a loss of $598m in 2014.
But not all of the news was bright.
Ford was profitable in all areas of the world except in economically challenged Latin America.
The company claims a 6.9-percent global market share, unchanged from 2014.
Yesterday, when Ford released excellent fourth quarter results that beat the consensus earnings estimate, the stock actually traded down to $11.20, and closed the day 1.18% lower at $11.71. It had another $10.9 billion in available credit lines, for a total of $34.5 billion in liquidity.
– Automotive sales in the fourth quarter rose 12 percent to $37.9 billion.
Ford expects incremental improvements in most of its business measures in 2016. Operating profit for the quarter was $2.6 billion, double the $1.3 billion earned in the same period in 2014. And we think its stock price has almost unlimited room to run for early, in-the-know investors!
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Ford brought in a full year profit of $10.8bn ($7.5bn).
