Ford Motor (F) gave a robust 2024 outlook late Tuesday after posting far stronger-than-hoped earnings for a fourth quarter marred by the autoworkers’ strike. Ford stock spiked in Wednesday’s premarket, eyeing an early entry.
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Ford Earnings
Estimates: Analysts, on average, expected earnings per share to decline 73% to 12 cents, according to FactSet. Revenue was seen falling 2%, year over year, to $43.062 billion.
The United Auto Workers strike against Ford, General Motors (GM) and Stellantis (STLA) ended Oct. 30, with the auto giants making costly concessions.
Results: Ford earnings of 29 cents per share, down 43% and marking the first decline in five quarters, were more than double the 12 cents that analysts were expecting. Revenue of $46 billion, up 4% and also above views.
Ford Blue, the company’s gas- and hybrid-vehicle business, delivered Q4 earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) of $813 million.
Ford Model e, the all-electric vehicle unit, lost $1.57 billion during the quarter, ” reflecting an extremely competitive pricing environment,” the earnings release said.
Ford Pro, the commercial vehicle unit, produced EBIT of $1.811 billion in the quarter.
The automaker declared regular and supplemental dividends of 15 and 18 cents per share, respectively, for the first quarter.
Outlook: The automaker late Tuesday guided full-year 2024 adjusted EBIT of $10 billion-$12 billion, with the midpoint of $11 billion well above FactSet consensus views for $9.650 billion. It also forecast above-consensus free cash flow (FCF) of $6 billion-$7 billion.
Archrival GM on Jan. 30 provided bullish outlook.
Ford Stock Performance
Shares of Ford Motor surged 5.9% to 12.78 in early trade on the stock market today. F stock rallied 4.3% on Tuesday.
Ford stock has been meeting resistance at its 200-day moving average after regaining the 50-day line in late January. Its post-earnings jump suggests a possible move back above the 200-day line on Wednesday, which could mark an early entry for risk-tolerant investors.
GM stock and STLA stock posted gains in the 1%-2% range on Tuesday. Stellantis reports for Q4 on Feb. 15.
Toyota stock spiked 7.8%. Toyota Motor (TM) on Tuesday forecast a record $30.3 billion net profit for the fiscal year ending March, thanks to higher global sales of hybrid vehicles. The move put TM stock almost 14% above a 194.43 buy point after a breakout in January.
Tesla stock staged a modest rebound Tuesday, still near multi-month lows.
Hybrid EVs Rise, Battery EVs Slow
Legacy automakers continue to pare back their big bets on “pure” or battery electric vehicles (BEVs). They report growing demand for hybrid vehicles, while industrywide BEV sales growth has slowed.
In January, Ford’s hybrid EV sales continued to power its overall new vehicle sales, continuing the momentum seen in the final quarter of 2023.
Amid record hybrid sales, Ford’s 2023 sales totaled 1,995,912 vehicles — up 7% over 2022 and the best since 2020, capped by a slight Q4 gain despite the labor strike. Combustion vehicles still made up 90% of total 2023 sales.
While many customers are interested in buying BEVs, they are unwilling to pay premiums for them over gas or hybrid vehicles, industry watchers say. That has hurt BEV prices and profitability, Ford has said.
GM is now bringing back hybrid vehicles, hedging its earlier pursuit of all-electric vehicles.
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