After 13 years of effort Ford Motor Co adjusted to the demand for more fuel efficient vehicles and succeeded its best first-quarter profit. Strong sales in the USA and a smaller impact of the Japan earthquake on its business were the driving force behind the results.
A loss of production of only 12-14 thousand cars in Asia where several plants have temporarily been closed could not drag Ford behind competition.
Stock exchange reacted positively and pushed shares up 3.5% to a staggering USD16.09 at the end of the day. The result is even more surprising as Q4-2010 results missed the expectations of the analysts by a large margin.
Outside Asia Ford’s production felt no changes and the company registered a net income increase to USD2.55 billion (almost 61 cents per share) as compared with USD2.09 billion (50 cents a share) a year earlier. Another staggering first-quarter net income increase was registered only in 1998.
Revenue rose to USD33.1 billion, from USD28.1 last year, with expectations of the analysts as high as USD29.7 billion.
The Consumer’s Union signaled the revival of Ford sales even before the announcement of these results taking into consideration the improved road-test and reliability scores of this make, higher than any other vehicle. They are expected to prove now that the new trend is sustainable for a longer term. Good results have also been obtained by General Motors and Volvo both on road-test and reliability that may be reflected in better profits. Honda, Subaru and Toyota remain the best vehicles overall for the third year and could easily change the market trend in the long run.
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