Both Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) and General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) are scheduled to report second-quarter earnings before markets open Thursday. And both companies have some, shall we say, issues.
GM’s second quarter is tainted with the same stain as the first — a seemingly endless stream of recalls. The company took recall-related charges totaling $1.3 billion in the first quarter and has said it will take a charge of $1.2 billion in the second quarter. That’s the bad news.
The good news, at least for GM, is that U.S. sales are up 7% in the second quarter of 2014 and sales in China are up 8%. The company delivered 4.92 million vehicles to dealers in the first half of the year, up 1.4% year-over-year. Even GM’s Opel division managed to increase sales by 3% in the second quarter and the company said it gained share in 11 European markets.
Ford had a weak first quarter, missing the consensus earnings per share (EPS) estimate and reaffirming its lowered revenue guidance for the year. Nothing that has happened in the second quarter indicates a major change to these results. Analysts expect EPS to come in at $0.36, down from $0.45 in the year-ago second quarter.
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When Ford reported June sales it said that sales were down 5.8% year-over-year for the first half of 2014. Looking just at pickup sales for the three U.S. carmakers, total sales through the first six months of 2014 are 903,555. Through the first six months of last year the total was 868,024. That’s an increase of 4%. Market share changes are more dramatic: a year ago Ford claimed 42% of U.S. sales, GM/Chevy had 38% and Ram had 20%. This year Ford claims 40%, GM/Chevy get 37% and Ram 23%. This is not good news for Ford.
On an adjusted basis, GM is expected to post EPS of $0.58 on revenues of $40.59 billion, compared with expected EPS at Ford of $0.36 on revenues of $36.26 billion. Analysts have cut the EPS estimate for GM from $1.04 to its current level over the past 90 days, with the big dip coming when the company added more than 7.6 million vehicles to its ignition switch recall. On a GAAP basis that should at least halve profits. Ford’s estimated EPS has also been lowered, but only by a couple of cents. But Ford is arguably in a weaker position due to declining sales.
Ford shares were up about 0.5% shortly before noon on Wednesday, at $17.91 in a 52-week range of $14.40 to $18.08.
GM stock traded up about 0.2%, at $37.84 in a 52-week range of $31.70 to $41.85.
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