Stacy94PGT

Ford sees weaker profit in 2005

Reuters

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday said earnings will fall this year due to a drop in profit from its finance unit, which it expects to be hit by rising interest rates.

But the second-largest U.S. automaker said it was still on track to meet its goal of posting $7 billion in annual pretax profit by 2006.

Ford forecast a 2005 profit of between $1.75 and $1.95 per share excluding special items, or pretax profit of $5 billion to $5.7 billion.

Wall Street analysts on average expect Ford to post a profit of $1.87 per share, according to Reuters Research. Last year Ford earned $2.11 a share, or pretax profit of $5.8 billion excluding special charges.

Ford said it expects its financial services unit, which includes Ford Credit and Hertz Corp., to post a pretax profit of $3.5 billion to $3.7 billion this year, down from nearly $5 billion in 2004.

In addition to higher interest rates, the financial unit will be hurt by lower volume and a non-recurrence of loan loss reserve reductions, Ford said.

The automaker also said it intends to earn between $1.5 billion and $2 billion from its core automotive operations before taxes, up from a profit of $850 million before taxes last year.

The higher automotive earnings are based on expectations that Ford will book a profit this year from its European luxury division, the automaker said in a statement.

__________________
Stacy94PGT
My first car was a 67 Mustang Coupe, 2nd one was a 67 Cougar XR-7, 3rd one was a 66 Mustang Coupe. Why did I get rid of these cars for ? I know why, because I'm stupid, stupid, stupid.

My next Ford.....