Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) on Tuesday posted a U.S. sales decline of 2% year-over-year in February, to 180,383 Ford and Lincoln vehicles, compared with February 2014 sales of 183,947. Sales of most of the company’s best-selling vehicles fell in the month, with the exceptions of the full-size Explorer sport utility vehicle (SUV) and the Mustang, both of which saw sales increase by nearly 32%.
The sales totals were well below the estimate of 193,000 units from Edmunds. WardsAuto was looking for sales of 196,000, and Kelley Blue Book projected sales of 195,000.
Sales of the all-new Ford F-Series pickups declined by 1.2% in February to 55,236 units, but sales are up 7% for the first two months of 2015. That is good, but it appears to be way short of expectations for the aluminum-bodied pickups that Ford has bet its future on. Sales of Chrysler’s Ram pickups also slowed down in February, and in standard fashion, neither company chose to comment on that.
Ford said that the new pickups are turning over inventory more than the industry standard for a full-size pickup, but it does not provide a number. In January Ford said that the new F-Series trucks averaged 12 days on dealer lots and that higher-priced models spent just nine or 10 days on the lot.
Focus sales fell by 12% to 14,019 units and Fusion sales were off 4.9% at 22,732 units.
Ford’s Escape small SUV saw a sales drop of 9.6% year-over-year, as utilities sales fell by 2.3%. Car sales fell by 8.1% and truck sales, including the Transit vans, rose 4.1%. However, if we exclude the Transit van, which was not available last year, truck sales are well below last February’s level.
Investors are hammering the stock, which traded down about 2.7% in the early going Tuesday at $16.13 in a 52-week range of $13.26 to $18.12.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks