Ford has faced sales issues with its all-new F-150 pickup trucks, the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. In June the company sold 55,171 units and sales are down 2.4% through the first half of the year. The company has said that once production was fully ramped up at its Kansas City plant the company will be able to meet demand for fleet sales. In early June Ford announced that both plants building the F-150 have reached full production levels. That won’t make any difference to second-quarter sales, but when the company announces July sales next week, we should begin to see an impact.
Speaking of July, analysts at Kelley Blue Book are expecting Ford to post July sales of 214,000 units, up 0.8% compared with July of last year. Ford’s market share, however, is forecast to dip 0.3% to 14.6% in July.
Ford’s first-quarter 2015 EPS came in 11.5% below the consensus estimate and since reporting first-quarter results in late April, the EPS estimate has dropped by 3 cents.
Ford had a tough first quarter in four of its five regions, and globally, sales and revenues were both down. North American sales were down, Europe and South America both posted net losses, and revenues slipped in Asia. Only the Middle East region posted a sales gain, and that was a rather paltry $25 million year-over-year. Ford has to do better than that in the second-quarter, and the company has said it expects better results.
In the first few minutes of trading Monday morning, Ford shares traded down about 0.8% at $14.28 in a 52-week range of $13.26 to $17.87. The consensus price target on the stock is $17.12, and the high price target is $20.00.
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