The Ford money machine churns out profits

Ford Motors had the best year in a decade. CC by AndrewEick/Flickr

With new models and a reputation on the upswing, Ford Motor Co. is running strong, reports Automotive News. On Jan. 28, Ford revealed numbers that prove that 2010 was the company’s most profitable year since 2000. It is the second straight year under CEO Alan Mulally that Ford has announced a profit.

Getting a 48-cent profit per share with the ‘money machine’ at Ford

The $30.57 billion fourth-quarter revenue that Ford Motors had shows a 48-cents-per-share profit before taxes, reports a Thomas Reuters survey. With that rate of gains, the fourth quarter profits would be about $1.7 billion, and 2010 was Ford’s best first three quarters since 1998 with $6.37 billion in net income, totaling the year out at $8 billion

Automotive News reports that Ford’s annual profit in 2009 was $2.72 billion with a total revenue of $118.31 billion. The company is doing well because of Ford vehicle quality, Mulally explained. J.D. Power & Associates ranked Ford among the best mass-market brands recently. Overall in the J.D. Power survey, Ford got fifth behind Porsche.

“Ford is building better cars since (Mulally) came in,” said fund manager Gary Bradshaw of Dallas-based Hodges Capital Management, which owns 100,000 common and 100,000 preferred shares of Ford stock. “He’s just making this company a money machine.”

No TARP funds for Ford

When it comes to consumer confidence, Ford has got it all. Unlike GM and Chrysler, Ford didn’t accept any TARP money. In what Alan Mulally labeled “the world’s largest home-equity loan,” Ford leveraged its main assets back in 2006 for $23 billion in private loans.