Ford posts quarterly profit

The automaker, whose shares rose 7 percent in premarket trading, also expects to be "solidly profitable" in 2011.

Ford, the only large U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy in 2009, reported its first operating profit since the first quarter of 2008 with $1.3 billion (794.3 million pounds) in automotive cash flow in the third quarter.

Ford reported a net profit of $997 million, or 29 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with a net loss of $161 million, or a 7 cents per share loss a year earlier.

Ford reported an operating profit 26 cents per share, excluding one-time items. Analysts on average expected Ford to post a loss of 12 cents per share on that basis, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Its shares rose 50 cents to $7.50 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by David Bailey and Soyoung Kim; Editing by Derek Caney)