Ford stock reaches 2-year high; Soros takes stake

Ford Motor Co., two weeks after posting a surprise $997 million third-quarter profit, closed today at its highest price in more than two years, benefiting investors including billionaire George Soros.

Ford, the only major U.S. automaker to avoid bankruptcy, rose 30 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $8.71 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. That's the highest since the shares closed at $8.95 on Nov. 2, 2007. The shares rose 25 percent since Oct. 1 and more than tripled this year.

Soros Fund Management LLC, managed by Soros, took a 7.34 million share stake in Ford as of Sept. 30, the New York-based company said today in a regulatory filing. The fund bought at an average of $7.21, gaining $11 million through today, and ranking Soros the automaker's 38th largest investor, with 0.2 percent of common shares outstanding, according to Bloomberg data.

"Ford is carrying momentum now that is providing some benefit," said auto analyst Jeff Schuster of J.D. Power & Associates of Southfield, Michigan. "It appears to be a growing momentum, as opposed to something that is short-lived."

The automaker's U.S. car and light truck sales rose 3.3 percent in October, while industrywide sales were even with last year, according to Autodata Corp. of Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey. Taurus sedan sales more than doubled while deliveries of the midsize Fusion rose 24 percent.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker's U.S. market share rose to 15.8 percent so far this year, from 14.8 percent a year earlier, according to Autodata.

Ford beat analyst expectations of a third-quarter loss when it posted pretax income of $1.1 billion Nov. 2.