Jan 29, 2015 05:29 PM EST
Ford's Net Income Drops in Q4 Over Venezuelan Charge

Ford's net income dropped in the fourth quarter as the automaker took a predicted charge in order to handle currency devaluation at its Venezuelan operations.

Without that loss and other one-time items, the Detroit automaker finished ahead of Wall Street's expectations for the fourth quarter and the full year.

Ford shares rose in premarket trading, according to a report by the Associated Press. Its net income dropped to $52 million in the fourth quarter, mainly due to an $800 million charge over Venezuelan currency controls.

Ford said earlier this month that it was planning on removing its Venezuelan operations from its financial reporting in future quarters.

Company earnings of a penny per share compared to earnings of 75 cents per share in the fourth quarter back in 2014, according to the AP report.

Ford earned $1.1 billion during the fourth quarter, without one-time items like separation payments in Europe and the Venezuela charge, which is down from 15 percent last year.

Fourth-quarter revenue dropped 4.5 percent to $35.9 billion, which topped most analysts' expectations.

For the entire year, Ford earnings dropped 56 percent to $3.2 billion, or 80 cents per share.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields has said a number of times that he expects pretax profits will grow by around 51 percent in 2015 as the automaker turns away from a year of heavy spending and reduced production in order to release 24 new models.

Ford is dishing out more than $1 billion to update its two U.S. plants to make its redesigned Mustang and new F-150 pickup truck.

"It certainly has been challenging, especially in light of how healthy the industry has been," Michael Razewski, a principal at Douglas C. Lane & Associates in New York who oversees more than $4 billion, including Ford shares, said to Bloomberg. "This is definitely an important year for Ford."

Worldwide sales fell to 6.3 million cars and trucks, according to the AP.

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