Ford Q3 earnings beat Wall Street expectations despite net loss of $827 million

Ford Motor Company released its third-quarter financial results this week and narrowly beat Wall Street expectations while reporting a net loss of $827 million for the quarter.

Ford attributed the loss to supply chain problems and costs related to disbanding its autonomous vehicle unit, Argo AI after the automaker made a strategic choice to focus its resources on creating advanced driver assistance systems and not robotaxi-compatible AV technology.

Ford CFO John Lawler said the decision was based on the company’s realization that “fully autonomous vehicles at scale are still a long way off.”

The Detroit automaker reported revenue of $37.2 billion, versus expectations of $36.25 billion, and adjusted earnings per share landed at $0.30. The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.8 billion for the quarter, a 40% decline from last year but still outpacing Ford’s forecasts.

The company adjusted its guidance to forecast full-year adjusted earnings of $11.5 billion and raised its full-year adjusted free cash flow forecast to between $9.5 billion and $10 billion – a jump from the previous forecast of $5.5 billion to $6.5 billion.

Last month, Ford warned investors that it was facing an additional $1 billion in unexpected supplier costs during Q3 and parts shortages that affected between 40,000 and 50,000 vehicles. The result was an adjusted profit margin of 5%, down from 10.1% last year.

Ford President and CEO Jim Farley included a statement with the results, saying, “We’re asking ‘What’s best for customers? in everything we do. Winning for customers is driving a re-founding of the company through Ford+, with high ambitions for quality, innovation, profitability, and growth across all our businesses – making smart choices about how we deploy capital even as we learn to adapt.”

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