Ford: America's independent automaker

Ford posts first full-year net profit since 2005

Excerpt:

Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F - News) reported 2009 earnings of $2.7 billion on Thursday, its first full-year profit since 2005, and said it expects a 2010 profit amid market share gains and a slow U.S. auto sales recovery.

Ford also posted a fourth-quarter profit that soundly beat Wall Street forecasts. It attributed the full-year profit in part to cost-cutting, gains from debt-reduction efforts, good results from its financing arm and stronger pricing.

The automaker repeated its forecast that 2011 would be "solidly profitable," but Chief Financial Officer Lewis Booth cautioned that Ford still had to take steps to address its "uncompetitive balance sheet" and was watching for more signs the U.S. economic recovery would continue.

"We're working hard on that," Booth said of the balance sheet. "We did a lot last year and we have a lot more to do.

"The single most important thing is to see the economic recovery ... continue," he told reporters. "We are worried about how fragile that may be."

For the fourth quarter, Ford posted a profit of $868 million, or 25 cents per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $6 billion, or a $2.51 per share. Revenue rose to $35.4 billion from $29 billion.

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