NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
Ford Motor Co. reported sharply improved fourth-quarter earnings Thursday that beat Wall Street expectations, but projected that first quarter results would be at or below estimates.
The world's No. 2 automaker, behind General Motors Corp., reported earnings of $612 million, or 31 cents a share, excluding special items. That compares with $150 million, or 8 cents a share, in the year-earlier period. Analysts surveyed by First Call expected, on average, 28 cents a share.
Including special items, including restructuring of its European operations and an agreement on splitting retiree benefit costs with its former parts unit Visteon (VC: Research, Estimates), the company posted a net loss of $793 million, or 43 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $130 million, or 7 cents, a year earlier.
The company said it expects first quarter EPS of 40 cents to 45 cents, excluding special items. First Call's forecast is for 45 cents, unchanged from a year ago.
The company also repeated its full-year guidance given earlier this month of earnings per share of $1.20 to $1.30, excluding special items. First Call's consensus forecast has since fallen to $1.28 from its $1.30 estimate at the time of that guidance. The company posted earnings of $1.14 excluding special items for full-year 2003.
Ford's revenue rose to $46 billion from $41.5 billion, as a rise in auto revenue made up for a decline in revenue from the credit unit.
Despite the decline in revenue, Ford Credit was key to the company's fourth-quarter operating profits. The company's financing arm posted earnings of $470 million, up from $354 million a year earlier.
Car rental unit Hertz also reported slightly improved results, with a pre-tax profit of $44 million, up from $27 million.
Ford's core automotive operations posted a $4 million loss in the quarter, although that was an improvement from the $240 million operating loss from autos in the year-earlier period.
The international automotive operations division posted a pre-tax profit of $172 million compared to a loss of $452 million a year earlier. But core North American auto operations saw pre-tax profits fall to $197 million from $513 million a year earlier. It blamed costs related to the introduction of new vehicles, higher pension and healthcare expenses, and unfavorable exchange rates as the reason for the decline in profits.
Still, the narrow loss from autos was good enough to give the auto unit full-year operating income of $104 million in 2003 compared to a full-year operating loss of $257 million in 2002.
Shares of Ford (F: down $0.16 to $16.28, Research, Estimates) were off about 1 percent in morning trading Thursday.
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