* Q4 EPS 43 cents vs Wall St view 15 cents

* Year-end liquidity $1.5 bln

* Shares up 4.7 pct in premarket trading (Adds share prices, consensus view, CEO outlook)

DETROIT, Feb 23 - Auto parts maker Federal-Mogul Corp (FDML.O) reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, compared with a year-earlier loss, driven by aggressive cost-cutting and improving global auto production.

Shares of Federal-Mogul jumped 4.7 percent to $16.50 in premarket trading, as investors bet on a continued earnings recovery for the supply sector. U.S. auto sales have been rebounding from the worst downturn since the recession of the early 1980s.

Chief Executive Jose Maria Alapont told Reuters he was cautiously optimistic that the company would post very strong earnings growth this year as savings from its restructuring over the past two years coupled with the market recovery.

The company said the recent restructuring action had reduced its global cost base by about $460 million annually.

Fourth-quarter net income was $43 million, or 43 cents per share, compared with a year-earlier loss of $530 million, or $5.36 per share. Revenue rose to $1.4 billion from $1.3 billion.

Analysts on average had expected Federal-Mogul to earn 15 cents per share on sales of $1.39 billion in the quarter.

Federal-Mogul, controlled by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, said liquidity improved to $1.5 billion at the end of last year.

Alapont said the company would focus on making strategic acquisitions this year to add to its technologies and geographic footprint. (Reporting by Soyoung Kim; editing by John Wallace and Gerald E. McCormick)

Carl icahn Investment