Analysts Making Moves on Ford

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) reported very good first-quarter results last week and the company was rewarded with a share price gain Thursday of about 3.1%, which it promptly returned on Friday. That seems a little harsh. After all, Ford’s pretax profit in the quarter was the highest in its 113-year history.

Operating profit nearly doubled to $3.1 billion in North America, where Ford’s market share rose from 15.0% in the first quarter of last year to 15.7%. Operating profit turned positive in Europe and more than doubled in the Asia/Pacific region. Equity income from the company’s joint ventures in China rose 23% year over year to $443 million.

That wasn’t enough for Merrill Lynch, however, where analysts downgraded the stock from Buy to Neutral based on valuation and a forecast for lower earnings in the second half of the year. The analysts did raise their price objective on the stock from $16 to $17 a share, just to cover their bets.

Other ratings changes included the following:

• Barclays raised its price target from $13 to $14 with an Equal Weight rating.
• Goldman Sachs bumped up its price target from $16 to $17 with a Neutral rating.
• RBC lifted its price target from $14 to $15 with a Sector Perform rating.
• UBS cut its target price from $22 to $20 while keeping its Buy rating.

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Ford must be wondering what it has to do to get some love. An analyst from Barclays told Automotive News that while the results were “strong across the board, we’re not sure that this will do much to dissuade the bears from the ‘as good as it gets’ mantra.”

Carmakers report monthly sales for April on Tuesday, and Kelley Blue Book’s analysts peg Ford’s sales volume to rise by 6.5% to 236,000 units. That’s the best among the Detroit Three, but even so leaves Ford more than three full points behind GM in market share for the month.

Ford shares closed at $13.56 on Friday, down 3.8% for the day, in a 52-week trading range of $10.44 to $15.88. The consensus price target on the stock is $15.87 and may not include the most recent changes.