Ford Motor Co. (F) raised prices of its vehicles by an average of $124 or 0.4% per unit on the back of higher commodity costs. This is the third time the automaker hiked prices of its vehicles in the year after once in January and next in April. On an average, the price rise was 1.3% or $375 per vehicle this year.

Higher commodity costs have been bothering Ford for a long time. In the first quarter of 2011, the automaker’s structural costs went up $400 million and commodity costs increased by $300 million from the first quarter of 2010.

Ford expects commodity costs and structural costs to increase by $2 billion from 2010 in order to support higher volumes in the short term as well as expand and improve its lineups.

The Zacks #3 Rank (Hold) company posted a roaring 48% rise in profit to $2.61 billion in the first quarter of 2011 from $1.76 billion in the same quarter of 2010. On earnings per share basis, profits rose 35% to 62 cents per share from 46 cents per share a year ago, thereby topping the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 12 cents per share.

It was a turnaround performance with respect to the fourth quarter of 2010, when the automaker recorded a 24% fall in profit. However, the company did not deprive their stockholders from enjoying a profit for seven straight quarters after years of losses. In fact, it posted a profit during the quarter that was the best since the same quarter in 1998.

Total revenue during the quarter escalated 18% to $33.1 billion, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $30.5 billion. The increase in revenues was attributable to a 12% rise in sales to 1.40 million vehicles. In March, the automaker topped General Motors Co. (GM) for the second time since 1998.

During the quarter, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of sales was 13.4 million in the U.S. and 15.9 million units for the 19 markets that Ford captures in Europe. These led to a market share of 16% in the U.S. and 8.5% in Europe.

 
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