Ford Motor Co. • The second-biggest U.S. automaker said its net income fell 45 percent to $1.4 billion in the first quarter. Revenue fell 2 percent to $32.4 billion.
Ford took a beating from plummeting European sales and weaker results in Asia and South America. It also started paying more in taxes.
North America came to the rescue, with a $2.1 billion profit, its best first-quarter performance since Ford began reporting the region separately in 2000. In a note to investors, Jeffrey’s analyst Peter Nesvold said Ford is seeing success no one would have predicted before its turnaround took hold three years ago.
Fitch Ratings is so convinced of Ford’s turnaround that it upgraded the company to investment-grade status this week for the first time since 2005.
Proctor & Gamble Co. • The world’s largest consumer-product company said Friday that its third-quarter net income dropped 16 percent, hurt by restructuring charges and continued high costs for items such as diesel fuel and packaging. Shares fell 3 percent in morning trading.
The company said net income fell 16 percent to $2.41 billion, or 82 cents a share, during the January to March quarter. That compares with $2.87 billion, or 96 cents a share, last year.
Revenue rose 2 percent to $20.19 billion. Analysts expected $20.35 billion.
Consumer-product companies across the board have been raising prices to deal with higher costs for materials such as pulp, fuel and packaging.
Chevron • The second-largest U.S. energy company reported Friday that profits increased 4.2 percent from January to March as oil sold for higher prices.
The San Ramon, Calif., energy giant reported net income of $6.47 billion, or $3.27 a share, for the first quarter. That compares with $6.21 billion, or $3.09 a share, for the same part of 2011. Revenue increased less than 1 percent to $60.7 billion.
The results met Wall Street expectations.
From January to March, Chevron sold crude and other liquid hydrocarbons for an average of $102 per barrel in the U.S. and $110 per barrel internationally, up 15 and 16 percent, respectively.
That boosted revenue even as overall production dropped 4.7 percent.
Merck & Co. • The second-largest U.S. drugmaker reported a first-quarter profit Friday that beat analyst estimates on higher sales of its diabetes treatments.
Net income was $1.74 billion, or 56 cents a share, compared with $1.04 billion, or 34 cents, a year earlier, when Merck took a $500 million charge to settle a dispute with Johnson & Johnson, the Whitehouse Station, N.J.-based company said in a statement. Earnings per share excluding one-time items beat by 1 cent the 98-cent average of 18 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Sales rose 1.3 percent to $11.7 billion.
Merck is preparing for falling sales of its asthma treatment Singulair after cheaper copies come on the market in August. The company has been cutting thousands of jobs and trying to boost sales of existing products to counter the losses.
Denver Post staff and wire reports
