It’s been a rough few years, not just for Ford or the rest of the Big Three, but the automotive industry as a whole. But as automakers worldwide work to dig out from this wide-ranging recession, all eyes are on the Blue Oval, which has come out of this festering recession smelling like daisies. Ford has the freshest lineup of cars, lots of positive press and reviews, and to top it all off, a nice, fat profit from the first quarter of 2011.

Ford made over $2.6 billion in profits on worldwide sales of $33.1 billion, up over 22% (or over $466 million) compared to the first quarter of 2010, according to the press release.

Some other interesting tidbits from this massive profit; it is the seventh-consecutive quarter that Ford has posted a profit, and the highest quarterly profit in over a dozen years, since 1998. Ford didn’t just make money though, they also paid down even more of their outstanding debt. If you recall, just prior to the credit crunch, Ford mortgaged everything, including its logo, to secure operating capital in order to improve their vehicle lineup. Alas this meant a large debt burden; but Ford has been paying down their debt, to the tune of another $2.5 billion in the first quarter. At this point Ford now has $4.7 billion more gross cash on hand than it does debt (which puts its outstanding debt somewhere in the $17 billion range). The Blue Oval is making big moves, and it is paying off with big profits. Will Ford soon be America’s number one automaker…again?

Official Release

First quarter net income was $2.6 billion, or 61 cents per share, a $466 million increase from first quarter 2010. Pre-tax operating profit was $2.8 billion, or 62 cents per share, an increase of $827 million from first quarter 2010. Ford has posted a pre-tax operating profit for seven consecutive quarters.
Automotive pre-tax operating profit was $2.1 billion for the first quarter, an increase of $936 million from first quarter 2010.
Ford Credit reported a pre-tax operating profit of $713 million for the first quarter, a decrease of $115 million from first quarter 2010.
Total Company revenue was $33.1 billion in the first quarter, up $5 billion from first quarter 2010.
Ford generated positive Automotive operating-related cash flow of $2.2 billion in the first quarter, an improvement of $2.3 billion from first quarter 2010.

Ford continued to reduce Automotive debt with an additional $2.5 billion of net debt reductions in the first quarter as a result of the redemption of all outstanding Trust Preferred Securities. Ford ended the first quarter with Automotive gross cash of $21.3 billion, an increase of $800 million compared to the end of 2010. Ford’s Automotive gross cash exceeded debt by $4.7 billion, an improvement of $3.3 billion from year end 2010.

Ford ended the first quarter with $30.7 billion in total Automotive liquidity, an increase of $2.8 billion from year end 2010. For full year results, Ford plans to deliver continued improvement in pre-tax operating profit and Automotive operating-related cash flow compared to 2010.