Cars and Drivers

Ford Stock Performance Gets More Disappointing

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: May 7, 2017 6:45 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 12:16 pm

The stock market continues to vote aggressively against Ford’s (NYSE: F) performance, or lack thereof. Over the last year, its share price is off over 16% to $11.14. GM’s (NYSE: GM) price is higher by nearly 10% over the same period to $33.77. Fiat Chrysler’s (NYSE: FCAU) is up 50% to $11.37.

Ford lacks a hefty market share in Europe, one of the world’s most important markets. It stood at 8.3% in March. That is behind VW at 21.3%, PSA Group at 9.5%, and Renault at 9.5%. PSA has brought GM’s Opel brands, which will racket its market share up further.

Ford has done poorly in the world’s large car market–China. Its sales fell 21% in March. It sits well behind GM and VW, and is clearly losing ground

And, Ford is in trouble in its home market of the U.S. Its sales dropped 7.1% in April to 213,436. For the first four months of the year, they are off 5.1% to 826,981. For the same four month period, it market share has dropped 15.6% last year to 15.1% for 2017.

In April, Ford’s car sales fell 21.2% to 49,857. Truck sales fell 4.2% to 91,520. SUV sales rose 1.2% to 73,318.

Ford’s flagship F-150 posted flat sales in April. The full-sized pick up’s sales were 70,657. On the other hand, some of its best selling cars posted brutal results. Focus sales dropped 17.4% to 13,197. Fusion sales dropped 19.5% to 16,697. Mustang sales were down 36.6% to 8,063.

In comments about the April results in the U.S., Mark LaNeve, Ford Vice President, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service, entirely dodged the problem:

“Strong demand for high-series Super Duty trucks and diesel powertrains drove a $1,900 increase in Ford’s transaction pricing versus an industry increase of just $210. F-150 customers equipped nearly 70 percent of their trucks with EcoBoost engines last month, with dealers seeing strong demand for our new Raptor.”

Wall St. does not like that approach to problems at all. He would have done better to acknowledge it and say how the trouble might be solved.