Gut in target - aber mieser Ausblick:
Reuters
Ford Shows Lower Profit but Keeps Targets
Wednesday July 16, 7:31 am ET
By Justin Hyde
DEARBORN, Mich. (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F - News) on Wednesday reported a 27 percent decrease in second-quarter earnings due to escalating U.S. incentives and weak sales, but stuck to its full-year earnings target.
ADVERTISEMENT
Ford said it earned $417 million, or 22 cents a share, in the second quarter, down from $570 million, or 29 cents a share, a year earlier. Analysts had forecast, on average, 19 cents a share, according to Thomson First Call (News - Websites).
Ford forecast it would lose 15 cents a share in the third quarter, slightly worse than the average First Call estimate of a loss of 12 cents a share.
But Ford said it was still committed to its earnings target of 70 cents a share for all of 2003.
Nearly all of Ford's second-quarter profit came from its finance arm, Ford Credit, which earned $401 million, up 21.5 percent from a year earlier.
Ford's automotive unit earned just $3 million. The world's No. 2 automaker said weaker sales reduced automotive pretax profits by $1.1 billion, while lower prices took out $700 million.
Through June, Ford's U.S. sales had declined 2.8 percent this year as the company suffered from a weak economy, a dearth of new models, and tougher competition from domestic and foreign rivals. At the same time, Ford's average consumer incentive per vehicle has risen to $3,400, nearly 50 percent higher than a year earlier.
Ford's European operations lost $525 million in the second quarter, a result the company called "unsatisfactory." Ford said it had lowered its forecast for European industry-wide sales this year to 16.3 million vehicles from 17 million.
Ford said it cut costs by $1.3 billion in the second quarter. It said it reduced overhead, improved quality and saved money in manufacturing and engineering. It said it had set a target of cutting costs by $2.5 billion for all of 2003, well above its original target of $500 million