Ford Motors had recently posted its fourth quarter earnings that exceeded the projections of Wall Street. The American automaker restated its forecast that its pre-tax profit for 2016 would be the same if not higher than 2015.
However, Ford Motors warned that its North American profit margins for 2016 may not be the same as the 10.2 percent level attained last year, considering that its stock dropped 1.2 percent to about $11.70 last week of January.
According to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, the car maker earned 58 cents per share in Q4 2015 as against the 51 cents that Wall Street has previously expected, not including one-time items.
A majority of the Ford earnings were generated in the fourth quarter as well as for the whole year in North America. This is amidst the plunging of oil prices which have induced greater demand for larger and heavier pickups, especially the Super Duty models and the Ford F-150.
"We received a record company full year pretax profit of $10.8 billion," said Mark Fields, President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, at a recent Fourth Quarter Earnings conference call conducted by the American carmaker with its investors.
"Looking at the business units, every business unit with the exception of South America was profitable. In Europe, we returned to profitability and we earned over $1.25 billion," he continued.
"Asia Pacific had its best ever annual profit and of course North America and Ford Credit continue to deliver strong profitability for the company," Fields added.
Fields also mentioned that the company has generated its highest Ford earnings in a decade and the biggest revenue in 12 years. In addition, he said that the increase of their automotive-related operating margin was at 6.8 percent which was the highest since the 1990s.
Ford Motors announced in early January that it will pay its investors $1 billion as a special dividend.
