Ford Speeds Past Estimates, Shares Soar

Ford(F Quote - Cramer on F - Stock Picks) impressed Wall Street on Thursday with a surprise first-quarter profit that sent its shares rallying as much as 17%.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker continued to struggle in North America during the quarter, but its cost-cutting efforts went a long way toward narrowing its losses in the region, and strong results from Europe, Asia and South America picked up the slack.

Ford reported earnings for the period of $100 million, or 5 cents a share, compared with a loss of $282 million, or 15 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. Its first-quarter revenue declined to $39.4 billion from $43 billion, partly reflecting the absence of luxury brands Jaguar and Land Rover units, which are in the process of being sold.

Excluding one-time items, Ford said it earned 20 cents a share for the quarter, blowing away Wall Street's expectations, where analysts were predicting a loss of 16 cents a share, according to consensus estimates reported by Thomson Financial.

The performance marked the company's first profitable quarter since the second quarter of 2007, when it earned $750 million. Back then, its profit was quickly wiped out by an annual loss of $2.7 billion, and the company acknowledged that the rest of 2008 looks challenging as the U.S. housing downturn looks poised to bring on an economic malaise amid a slowdown in consumer spending.

Ford cut its full-year U.S. auto industry sales outlook, and it cut its second-quarter North American production plan, saying it would offer more targeted buyouts to union-represented employees after getting about 4,200 workers to accept recent offers to leave the company.

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