Ford Q3 Profit Misses Views, Shares Drop

This story is still developing. Traders will be talking about their live reaction to Ford earnings on Benzinga's Premarket Prep.

Shares of Ford Motor Company F dropped over 3 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the third quarter on Tuesday. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company posted quarterly net income of $1.9 billion, or $0.48 per share, compared to $1.1 billion, or $0.27 per share, in the year-ago period. After taxes, the company's earnings, excluding one-time items, came in at $0.45 per share. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.47 per share. The average estimate among 171 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.48 per share. In an email to Benzinga, a Ford spokesperson said, "We missed the street estimates because analysts did not listen to our tax rate guidance of 34 percent, which we communicated in 2Q. We came in at 33 percent and analysts calculated 32 percent." Its revenue rose $3.2 billion to $38.1 billion. Analysts projected revenue of $35.07 billion. Ford reaffirmed its pretax profit outlook of $8.5 billion to $9.5 billion for the full year. The company expects full-year profit margin in North America to be at the upper end of its prior outlook of 8.5 percent to 9.5 percent. The company's pretax profit in North America came in at $2.7 billion. Ford shares fell 3.76 percent to $15.09 in pre-market trading.