The Zhitong Finance App learned that Ford Motor Company (F.US) announced financial results for the third quarter of 2026 after the US stock market on October 28 (early morning of October 29, Beijing time). Revenue for the quarter was $49.5 billion, down 2% year over year; adjusted earnings per share were $0.49, up 9% year over year, higher than the market's consensus estimate of $0.40.
Net profit was $2 billion, down 17% year over year. Core profit indicators bucked the trend and rose slightly: adjusted EBIT was 2.7 billion US dollars, up 4% year over year, and adjusted EBIT profit margin was 5.4%, up 0.3 percentage points year over year; however, the automobile business revenue for the quarter was 46.08 billion US dollars, which was slightly lower than the forecast of 46.24 billion US dollars.
The company had operating cash flow of US$5.4 billion during the quarter, adjusted free cash flow of US$4.7 billion, cash holdings of US$25.3 billion and liquidity of US$46.4 billion at the end of the period.
By business, the fuel vehicle business Ford Blue's adjusted EBIT was 1.39 billion US dollars, down 10% year on year; the commercial vehicle business Ford Pro was 1.67 billion US dollars, down 16% year on year, dragged down by Canadian Super Duty production costs and rising commodity prices; the electric vehicle business Model e lost 1.06 billion US dollars, which is significantly narrower than the loss of 1.41 billion US dollars in the same period last year, and revenue fell 31% year on year to 1.2 billion US dollars. The company expects Model e's full-year loss to fall below the previous $4 billion to $4.5 billion guideline.
CEO Jim Farley told analysts that F-150 is rotating at a much faster rate than usual, and the company is targeting a 55-60 day supply, which is lower than the industry's usual 80-100 day supply. “This allows us to build a disciplined full-size truck business while watching our competitors play a very different game.”
Cost control and strong demand for pickups and SUVs are helping Ford withstand the pressure brought about by inflation and the war with Iran. The company raised the lower limit of the annual adjusted EBIT guidelines from $10 billion to US$10.5 billion to US$11 billion, and raised the annual commodity cost headwind forecast from about US$2 billion to nearly US$2.5 billion. The pressure came from rising copper and steel prices, and the price of diesel driving up freight costs and chip prices. The adjusted free cash flow guidance remained unchanged at $6-70 billion. The company also announced a fourth-quarter dividend of 15 cents per share.
CFO Shirley House said that profit for 2027 is expected to be roughly the same as 2026. The company expects commodity costs to rise significantly after entering 2027, rising fuel prices will drive up logistics costs, and the shortage of memory chips caused by the AI boom will cause chip prices to “rise moderately this year and increase more significantly next year and beyond.”