A $1,000 Investment in Ford a Decade Ago Is Worth Less Than $2,000, Under Half of What the S&P 500 Delivered
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The F-150 has been at the top of the U.S. truck market for so long that the F-Series is on pace for its 50th straight year[1] as America’s best-selling truck, even as the automaker’s stock has had a much rockier decade. Below is what $1,000 in Ford (NYSE:F | F Price Prediction) at the Nov. 30, 2016 close would be worth now, next to the same amount in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSEARCA:SPY), which stands in for the index.
EV Losses, Recalls and a Paused Dividend Defined Ford’s Decade
Much of Ford’s spending over the decade went into electric vehicles, and its Model e unit lost billions of dollars along the way. In Q4 2025[2], Ford recorded a $10.7B Model e asset impairment and a $3.2B BlueOval SK JV disposition charge. It also canceled an all-electric three-row SUV, and the year ended with a GAAP net loss of $8.18B[2].
Quality problems added to the pressure. Ford set an annual recall record in 2025, and it said it cut warranty and material costs by $1.5 billion that year. Dividends were uneven too: payments stopped after the 2020-01-29 ex-dividend date and returned in November 2021 at $0.10 per share. Larger combined payouts, including supplemental dividends, reached $0.33 in early 2024 and $0.30 in early 2025. That kind of stop-and-start history is one of the warning signs we flagged in a free guide to dividend traps. Over the same years, competition from Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) and Chinese EV makers picked up.
Ford Turned $1,000 Into $1,603 While SPY Reached $4,011
Ford closed at $11.96 on the purchase date and at $11.91 on Nov. 13, 2026.
1-Year Return
- Initial Investment: $1,000
- Current Value: $938.90
- Total Return: -6.11%
- S&P 500 (same period): $1,122.50 (12.25%)
5-Year Return
- Initial Investment: $1,000
- Current Value: $800.70
- Total Return: -19.93%
- Annualized Return: -4.35%
- S&P 500 (same period): $1,614.40 (61.44%)
10-Year Return (Dividends Reinvested)
- Initial Investment: $1,000
- Current Value: $1,603
- Total Return: 60.3%
- Annualized Return: 4.83%
- S&P 500 (same period): $4,011 (301.1%)
For the shorter periods, the Ford figures include dividends, while the SPY figures show price change only. Looking at share price alone, the 10-year Ford investment is worth $996, so nearly all of the gain came from dividends. Anyone holding through the full decade also had to wait out the 2020 to 2021 period with no dividend at all.
Ford’s Case Today Rests on Margins and Model e Losses
Ford pays $0.15 per share each quarter, which works out to $0.60 a year and a 5.04% yield. The stock trades at about 6 times forward earnings. Analyst ratings stand at 3 strong buy, 5 buy, and 12 hold, and the average price target is $15.02.
The case for Ford gets stronger if Ford Pro, hybrids, software subscriptions (up 30% to 879,000[3]), and Ford Energy help it reach its 8% adjusted EBIT margin target by 2029[4]. It gets weaker if Model e keeps losing about $4 billion a year. The balance sheet is a clear risk: debt-to-equity stands at 4.66.
Ford’s trucks stayed popular for the entire decade, while the stock trailed the S&P 500 over the same period. Over the same 10 years, a $1,000 stake in SPY reached $4,011.
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David Beren has been a Flywheel Publishing contributor since 2022. Writing for 24/7 Wall St. since 2023, David loves to write about topics of all shapes and sizes. As a technology expert, David focuses heavily on consumer electronics brands, automobiles, and general technology. He has previously written for LifeWire, formerly About.com. As a part-time freelance writer, David’s “day job” has been working on and leading social media for multiple Fortune 100 brands. David loves the flexibility of this field and its ability to reach customers exactly where they like to spend their time. Additionally, David previously published his own blog, TmoNews.com, which reached 3 million readers in its first year. In addition to freelance and social media work, David loves to spend time with his family and children and relive the glory days of video game consoles by playing any retro game console he can get his hands on.
