The shares of Ford Motor Co. rose on Friday, with Wall Street overlooking a nearly $ 3 billion quarterly loss, and a sales miss focused on the automaker’s plans to invest more in electric and self-driving cars.
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Late Thursday, it reported a larger loss and quarterly sales in the fourth quarter that were below Wall Street’s expectations, but it announced a better outlook for the first quarter, saying it would nearly double its investments in electric and autonomous vehicles. .
“We were very encouraged” by this, Emmanuel Rosner told Deutsche Bank in his note on Friday.
The company’s operating performance in the second half of 2020 and the guidelines for 2021 “suggest that the company may make a comeback with its profitability and cash generation, benefiting from new and refreshed products, strong prices and mix, and global cost reduction and efficiency, “he said.
Ford’s plan to invest in cars and self-driving cars has risen to $ 29 billion, including $ 22 billion for cars by 2025. This shows that CEO Jim Farley is accelerating the company’s transformation into an electrified and connected future. “
Read: Electric vehicles will make up a larger share of U.S. retail sales, says Edmunds
Ford is taking “more courageous and decisive action on EV (and AV)”, said Joseph Spak of RBC Capital in his note. Ford ‘pulls a GM’ and increases investment. This is absolutely essential. ”
Ford’s valuation of about $ 45 billion has been tarnished by the TSLA of Tesla Inc.
$ 800 billion in General Motors Co. see GM,
$ 79 billion. Tesla, of course, only makes electric vehicles, and GM has promised to do the same by 2035 and become a carbon-neutral enterprise by 2040.
A connecting concern with Ford, however, was the news that production of the new F-150 pickup, the No. 1 vehicle sold in the U.S. for decades, and one of the company’s crown jewels, was due to the shortage of chips. be hampered. The company has temporarily cut back on factory relocations.
Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley said in a note that Ford would adjust adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of approximately $ 7.1 billion and $ 8.1 billion for 2021.
Shares of Ford have earned 40% over the past 12 months, compared to the S&P 500 index by about 17%. SPX,