Ford's profit in 2nd tri surpasses expectation and reaches record in North America

DEARBORN, MICHIGAN (Reuters)-Ford Motor's operating profit in the second quarter topped Wall Street estimates, with a better result than expected in North America and Europe offsetting weaker ciphers in the Asia-Pacific region and in South America.
The financial Vice President of Ford, Bob Shanks, said lower costs helped boost pre-tax profit of the company in North America to a record 2.44 billion dollars. Nine analysts polled by Reuters were expecting pre-tax profit of 2.04 billion dollars.
The expectation is that costs in the second half of the year move, as the company launches more products, including the most important vehicle of its portfolio, the F-150 pickup.
The company's operating margin in North America rose to 11.6 percent, down from 10.6 percent a year earlier.
Ford maintained its target of a pre-tax profit between 7 billion to 8 billion dollars in consolidated this year.
The company's forecast for South America was readjusted to reflect greater loss than expected previously. Now the company estimates balance between income and expenses or losses in the second half.
In the quarter, South America had loss of 295 million dollars, compared with a loss of 182 million expected by nine analysts polled by Reuters.
Excluding non-recurring items, Ford earned 2.6 billion dollars, or $ 0.40 per share, which exceeded the forecast of $ 0.36 per share of analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/s.
Net income for the quarter was $ 1.3 billion, or $ 0.32 per share, high in relation to the profit of 1.23 billion dollars, or 0.30 dollar per share, a year earlier. Quarterly revenues amounted to 37.4 billion dollars, compared to 37.9 billion dollars in the same period last year.
The F-150 will begin to be produced at a Ford plant in Dearborn in October, and at its plant in Kansas City, Missouri, at the beginning of 2015.
(By Bernie Woodall)