Ford reported a second quarter profit of $2.6 billion today, marking the automaker’s best quarterly performance in six years and easily beating Wall Street expectations.
The net income is 15% higher than the company’s profit for the same three months last year when it reported a net income of $2.3 billion that was aided by one time gains from a debt exchange.
Before one-time adjustments, Ford reported earnings per share of 68 cents, or $2.7 billion for the three months ending June 30.
Analysts, on average, expected a quarterly profit of 41 cents a share from based on 12 estimates collected by Bloomberg News. For the same period last year Ford had an operating loss of $638 million, or 21 cents a share, a year earlier, excluding a gain from debt reductions.
Ford said its revenue for the second quarter increased to $31.1 million, up from $26.8 million for the same period last year.
“We delivered a very strong second quarter and first half of 2010 and are ahead of where we thought we would be despite the still-challenging business conditions,” Ford President and CEO Alan Mulally said in a statement. “Our progress is being led by the strength of our new products and our leaner global structure.”
The Dearborn automaker said its North American division, the company’s largest operating unit, earned a pre-tax operating profit of $1.9 billion compared with a loss of $899 million for the same period a year ago.