Ford Lifts Full-Year Profit Outlook After Strong Q1

Ford F-150 trucks being assembled at the Ford River Rouge Complex in Dearborn, Mich., in January. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Ford Motor Co. boosted its full-year profit outlook on demand for high-margin pickups and SUVs while warning that an unexpected rise in commodity costs will weigh on earnings. 

The automaker now expects to earn between $8.5 billion to $10.5 billion before interest and taxes this year, up $500 million from its previous forecast, the company said in a statement April 29. Ford also widely exceeded analyst expectations for first-quarter results, with adjusted earnings of 66 cents a share compared with 19 cents expected by Wall Street.

Yet Ford refrained from raising its full-year profit outlook to the same degree that its first-quarter profit beat estimates, suggesting a cautious view of the year ahead as the Iran war pushes up energy and commodity prices. The company also expects a $2 billion profit hit from rising commodity prices such as steel and aluminum, double what it had anticipated previously, echoing crosstown rival General Motors Co. 

Ford’s shares turned negative after earlier post-market gains, trading down 2% as of 5:05 p.m. on April 29 in New York. 

The first-quarter results highlight how Ford’s renewed focus on building high-priced pickups and SUVs is growing profits even as the company is whipsawed by macroeconomic forces. 

Ford Blue, the automaker’s traditional business that includes internal-combustion engine vehicles and gas-electric hybrids, earned $1.94 billion before interest and taxes in the most recent quarter, far more than the $96 million it earned in the year-earlier period. That’s despite Ford’s U.S. vehicle sales falling 8.8% in the first quarter, including a 16% decline in F-Series sales.

Ford’s large SUVs, such as the Explorer and Expedition, are a particular strength, while off-road performance trims account for nearly 25% of the company’s US sales, Chief Financial Officer Sherry House told reporters April 29. 

“These happen to be pretty high-mix, high-value vehicles,” she said.

The updated guidance also reflects a $1.3 billion one-time benefit in the first quarter from the Supreme Court’s ruling that overturned many of President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Ford cautioned that its improved outlook does not factor in a prolonged war with Iran or an economic downturn in the U.S.

“Our team is aggressively managing a complex external environment,” House said.

Despite the good news, Ford said it burned through $1.9 billion in adjusted free cash flow as it spends heavily to set up a new business in energy storage and to produce a $30,000 electric pickup truck coming next year.

Sales and production of F-Series pickups plunged early this year as fallout continued from last year’s fires at Novelis Inc.’s aluminum mill in New York that provides the raw material for the truck’s body panels. Ford has said the mill won’t be back up until this summer and has warned truck production won’t return to normal until the year’s second half.

Ford has been sourcing aluminum from overseas — and paying costly tariffs — to make the body panels after the disruptions cost Ford about $2 billion worth of lost production.

Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, Ford expects a $1 billion hit to earnings this year from Trump’s tariffs, House said. Consumer sentiment reached record lows after U.S. gasoline prices soared following the Feb. 28 start of the Iran war. That has taken a toll on Ford’s shares, which have declined more than 7% this year, reversing a sharp rise in 2025.

“The downturn in Ford’s stock started pretty much right when the bombing started,” David Whiston, an analyst with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago, said in an interview before earnings. “It’s just a lot of problems all at once, and it’s unfortunate because it’s not all their fault.”

The results come as Ford overhauled its money-losing electric vehicle operations, which included $19.5 billion in charges on underperforming EV assets. Ford’s top EV executive, Doug Field, said earlier this month that he’s leaving the company and his duties are being assumed by Chief Operating Officer Kumar Galhotra in a sweeping management reorganization.

Ford Pro, the automaker’s healthy logistics and commercial vehicle business, reported $1.68 billion in EBIT, up from $1.31 billion a year earlier. Ford has said it delayed some work truck sales to the second half of the year due to the shortage of F-Series inventory from the supplier fire.

Model e, Ford’s electric vehicle unit, lost $777 million in EBIT, better than the $849 million deficit it posted in the same period last year. Ford’s U.S. electric vehicle sales fell 70% in the first quarter following the company’s discontinuation of the F-150 Lightning plug-in pickup.