Ford posts best first quarter profit in 13 years on small car sales

Ford Motor combined strong sales and improved pricing to roar past earnings forecasts and post its best first-quarter profit since 1998.

Ford earned $2.6 billion, or 61 cents a share, up 22% from a year earlier, the company said Tuesday. The earnings not only topped the consensus forecast of 50 cents a share, they were better than the most bullish estimate of any analyst surveyed by earning tracker Thomson Reuters.

The last time Ford earned this much in the first quarter was in 1998, when the company sold part of its financial services unit. The past quarter’s performance underlined the continued turnaround at the company, which has now posted seven straight quarters of profit after years of losses.

Shares of Ford (F, Fortune 500) climbed nearly 3% in morning trading to $15.96. Ford’s stock has struggled since the company missed earnings forecasts with its fourth-quarter results, then was hit by investor worries about