Wall Street's Thoughts On Ford (F) After Much Better-Than-Expected Q4

A few of Wall Street's best are commenting on Ford (NYSE: F) after the company smashed fourth quarter estimates this morning. Ford reported EPS of $0.43, ex-items, well ahead of the consensus of $0.26. Revenue for the company in the quarter was $35.4 billion, beating the analyst consensus of $32.60 billion, and compared to the $29 billion that it made in the year-ago quarter. 2009 ended up being its first annual profit in four years. Despite the strong results, shares of Ford are flat today at $11.56.

• Deutsche Bank: "The quarter looks solid, overall, with $3.1 bn of free cash flow generated, exceeding our $0.6 bn estimate in part due to higher-than-expected working capital (positive $2.3 bn in the qtr.) and lower-than-expected capex ($1.1 bn vs. our $1.5 bn estimate). Upside to earnings appears to have been primarily driven by Ford Credit ($0.08 of EPS upside vs. our estimate), Volvo ($0.06 of EPS upside), and South America ($0.05 of EPS upside). North America was $0.02 better, driven by higher wholesale volumes, Europe was $0.1 better (production higher), and AP was $0.03 better (production also higher)...Overall, we continue to see modest positives (vs. our already high expectations) in Ford's results."
  
  
• Goldman Sachs: "The beat came both on the auto and FMCC sides of the business. Operating cash flow for the quarter came in at $3.1 bn much better than our forecast of $621 mn, mainly on the back of positive working capital of $2.3 bn but also due to higher PBT. The company also said that they expect to be profitable in North America, as well as on a total automotive and total company basis in 2010 (on a PBT level) which is one year earlier than their previous guidance...While shares had been pricing in a beat in our view, we think the current result exceed expectations...cash flow performance is well ahead of expectations and we think this is the most important element, given Ford’s still high debt level."

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