On a GAAP basis the company posted EPS of $0.32, which excludes $481 million in pretax special item charges. Among the charges were an impairment charge on Ford’s joint venture with Sollers in Russia and separation-related charges in Europe.
Ford issued 2014 guidance in December 2013 that included a drop in profits from $8.6 billion in 2013 to a range of $7 billion to $8 billion in 2014. The company reaffirmed that pretax profit guidance again Thursday and said the company was on track, with profits totaling $3.94 billion for the first half of the year.
The consensus analysts’ estimate for third-quarter EPS is $0.35 on revenues of $33.76 billion. For the full-year the consensus estimates call for $1.31 in EPS and revenues of $139.62 billion.
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Operating margin for the full year is expected to be lower than last year’s 5.4%; in the first half of the year, operating margin came in at 5%. Operating cash flow was forecast to come in “substantially” lower than 2013’s total of $6.1 billion; first half operating cash flow came in at $3.8 billion.
Ford expects to produce about 157,000 fewer vehicles in the third quarter than it did in the second quarter. The lower production is due to planned shutdowns and the changeover to a new F-150 pickup truck. Ford built 1.69 million vehicles in the second quarter.
Ford’s North American operating margin rose to 11.6% year-over-year for the second quarter, and pretax earnings rose from $2.32 billion to $2.44 billion. Ford sold 802,000 vehicles in North America in the second quarter, compared with 760,000 in the same period of last year. U.S. market share slipped 1.2% year-over-year to 15.3%, reflecting a planned decrease in daily rental sales and lower share for the F-150 pickups as the company gets ready to launch the new models.
In South America, Ford’s operating margin for the quarter fell to a negative 14%, from a positive 5% a year ago. Vehicle sales fell from 147,000 to 113,000 and the pretax loss totaled $295 million. Ford blamed exchange rate effects, higher costs and lower volume and mix.
Operating margins also turned positive in Europe, rising to 0.2%, compared with a negative 4.2% in the year-ago quarter. Revenues rose $700 million to $8 billion and pretax profit totaled $14 million, up from a loss of $306 million a year ago. Lower costs and a favorable exchange rate were major contributors to the turnaround. This is Ford’s first profit in Europe in three years.
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The company improved its market share in China to a record 4.6%, and market share in the Asia Pacific region rose to 3.7% from 3.3% a year ago. Ford still trails well behind General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) and Volkswagen, numbers one and two in the Chinese market. The company expects strong full-year results from the region, but the remaining quarters will post lower results than the strong second quarter.
Ford shares were up about 0.7% in premarket trading to $17.91, in a 52-week range of $14.40 to $18.08. Thomson Reuters had a consensus analyst price target of around $19.30 before this report.
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