Cars and Drivers
Ford Casts Shadow Over Auto Industry
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Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) saw its shares pull back early on Thursday after the company issued a warning for its first-quarter earnings report. Although this isn’t Ford’s first rodeo with earnings warnings, it may be one of the more pervasive in recent memory. It appears that not only Ford was hurt by this, but a few other major auto manufacturers saw declines on the day as well.
In a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said that it expects total company adjusted pretax profit to be about $9 billion in 2017. This is lower than the 2016 numbers and is driven by planned investments in emerging opportunities. However, the numbers are expected to improve in 2018.
Ford established earnings per share (EPS) guidance for the first quarter of 2017 in the range of $0.30 to $0.35 for both GAAP and adjusted (non-GAAP). This is lower than the auto manufacturer’s EPS in the first quarter of 2016 due to: higher costs (including commodities, warranty, and investments in emerging opportunities), lower volume (primarily fleet) and unfavorable exchange (currency).
The consensus estimates are $0.47 in EPS and $34.91 billion in revenue for the first quarter. The same period of last year reportedly had $0.68 in EPS and $35.26 billion in revenue.
Shares of Ford were last seen down 1.8% at $11.56 on Thursday, with a consensus analyst price target of $13.28 and a 52-week trading range of $11.07 to $14.22.
Other companies seeing declines on the day were Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (NYSE: FCAU) and General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM).
Fiat Chrysler was trading down 3.3% at $10.60, with a consensus price target of $15.28 and a 52-week range of $5.45 to $11.63.
GM shares traded down 0.8% at $34.10, in a 52-week range of $27.34 to $38.55. The consensus price target is $39.75.
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