Ford beats, but warns

Nation's No. 2 automaker drives well past 1Q earnings target but says it could lose money in 2Q.

April 20, 2005: 7:08 AM EDT

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ford Motor Co. drove well past Wall Street forecasts for first-quarter earnings Wednesday but warned that it could see a loss rather than the expected profit in the current period.

The nation's No. 2 automaker earned $1.3 billion, or 62 cents a share, excluding special items, in the first quarter. While that's down from nearly $2 billion, or 94 cents a share, in net income a year earlier, it's well above the consensus forecast of 39 cents a share from analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call.

But Ford warned that it expects to see somewhere between breakeven to a 15 cent a share loss in the second quarter, compared with the 61 cents a share it earned a year ago. First Call's forecast is for EPS of 38 cents a share this quarter.