FORD OVERCOMES COMPUTER CHIP SHORTAGE, POSTS SURPRISE PROFIT

Sky-high sales prices for its pickup trucks and SUVs helped Ford Motor Co. turn a surprise second-quarter profit despite a global shortage of computer chips that cut factory output in half.

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The Dearborn, Michigan, company said Wednesday that it made $561 million from April through June, largely because of cost cuts and higher-than-expected prices for its vehicles.

The automaker warned earlier in the year that it would be hit especially hard by the chip shortage and a fire at Japanese supplier Renesas that manufactures many of its automotive-grade chips, resulting in a second-quarter loss.

But Ford surprised investors by earning 13 cents per share excluding one-time items. That was far better than Wall Street expectations of a 3-centper-share loss, according to FactSet.

Revenue was $26.8 billion, also above analysts’ forecasts of just over $23 billion.

Ford raised its guidance for full-year pretax income by about $3.5 billion to between $9 billion and $10 billion. But it cautioned that higher commodity prices and capital investments would offset second-half wholesale volume that it expects to rise by about 30% over the first half.