Ford October Sales Tumble 12%

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) on Wednesday reported a U.S. sales decrease of 12% year over year in October to 188,813 Ford and Lincoln vehicles. That compared with October 2015 sales of 213,938. Truck sales fell 2.2% for the month, and sales of F Series pickups rose 0.1%.

Total sales compare to an estimate of more than 189,000 by analysts at Edmunds.com. Kelley Blue Book (KBB) had estimated Ford’s October sales at 190,000 at an average transaction price of $38,558, down 0.4% month over month and up 4.6% compared with October of last year. KBB transaction prices do not include applied consumer incentives.

The company appears to have stopped the bleeding in year-over-year F-150 sales, and the company said overall average transaction prices rose $800 month over month. Incentive spending rose $180 per vehicle year over year and fell $570 month over month. TrueCar had estimated an average incentive of $4,404 in October.

Sales of the Ford F-Series pickups rose 0.1% in October to 65,542 units. In September, Ford sold 67,809 F-Series trucks, following an August sales total of 66,9467. For the first 10 months of 2016, F-Series pickup sales are up 5% year over year.

Truck sales comprised more than 44% of all Ford sales in October, and the F-Series pickups accounted for nearly 35% of total October sales.

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Sales of the company’s sport utility vehicles (SUVs) posted a year-over-year decline of 9.3% in October, although sales are up 3% for the year to date.

Edge sales tumbled by 19.4% in the month but are still 5.1% higher year to date. The Expedition saw a sales decrease of 0.8% compared with October of 2015, and year to date Expedition sales are up 43.5%. Explorer sales fell 14.1% for the month and are down 5.4% year to date.

Sales of the Transit utility van totaled 10,202 units in October, up 9% compared with October 2015 and up 28.7% year to date to a total of 122,809 units.

Sales of the Lincoln brand rose 6.9% year over year in October as sales of Lincoln cars skyrocketed 40.6% on sales of the all-new Lincoln Continental. Car sales totaled 4,028 units in the month and utility vehicle sales totaled 4,041 units. SUV sales slipped 10.3% year over year in October, but are up 12.4% for the year to date.

Ford’s stock traded down about 1.1% Wednesday morning, at $11.48 in a 52-week range of $11.02 to $14.86.

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