Ford Posts 5th Straight Quarterly Profit

Ford Motor Co. posted its fifth straight quarterly profit on Friday as its popular cars and trucks continued to draw buyers from rivals in a slowly recovering U.S. market.

Helped by brisk sales, Ford has gained market share in the U.S. from Toyota Motor Corp., which was hurt by a series of safety recalls, and General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, who were tainted in some buyers’ eyes for accepting federal bailout money last year.

For the second quarter, Ford earned $2.6 billion, or 61 cents per share. That compared with net income of $2.3 billion, or 69 cents per share, in the same quarter a year ago.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker ended the quarter with 17.2 percent of the U.S. market, up from 16.9 percent at the end of the first quarter, according to auto information site Edmunds.com.

The company expects to be profitable in the second half of the year, although less profitable than in the first half, and sees even stronger results in 2011.

Ford beat Wall Street’s expectations. Without special items, Ford earned 68 cents per share in the latest quarter, exceeding analysts’ forecasts of 40 cents. Analysts don’t factor in one-time items, including $229 million in charges related to the discontinuation of the Mercury brand.

Ford’s revenue rose to $31.3 billion, beatings expectations of $29.8 billion. U.S. sales rose 28 percent in the first six months of this year. That’s almost double the industry pace.

Ford paid off $7 billion in debt in the second quarter, most of it a cash payment to a United Auto Workers trust fund that pays retiree health care bills. The automaker ended the quarter with $27.3 billion in debt, which will cut its interest payments by $470 million per year.

Ford’s debt has helped finance a series of highly regarded new products, which has helped the Detroit automaker grab buyers’ attention.

Ford said Friday it expects to end 2011 with more cash than debt. It now has $21.9 billion in cash.

DEE-ANN DURBIN, TOM KRISHER, AP Auto Writers DEARBORN, Mich.