Ford profit beats Street; sales down on F-150 launch

DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co's third-quarter earnings beat Wall Street expectations on a strong showing in North America and China even as revenue fell due to the cost of introducing the F-150 pickup truck.

Ford's launch of its F-150 made with an aluminum body is on track, the company said on Friday. A 3 percent drop in third-quarter revenue to $34.9 billion is largely linked to the shutdown of the F-150 plant in Dearborn, Michigan.

Ford net profit of $835 million, or 21 cents per share, was down 34 percent from $1.27 billion, or 31 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, Ford reported earnings of 24 cents per share, which beat expectations of 19 cents from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn)