Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F | F Price Prediction) has a few things going for it. The most recent was pointed out by Barron’s: Ford’s free cash flow could be as high as $14 million when this year’s figure is combined with a forecast for next year. Investors do not seem to care. Based on what is seen as grim prospects, the stock has sold down by almost 50% this year.
[in-text-ad]
Among Ford’s problems is a worry that it will lag most other large car companies and Tesla as electric vehicle (EV) sales worldwide surge. The United States is an example. Ford has its promising F-150 Lightning, the electric version of its most popular vehicle. Ford has sold only 13,258 of these this year, through November. Sales in November were 2,062. These are not blazing numbers. However, the truck has been in short supply. Next year will tell the tale of its popularity. Ford has undermined its chances with unexpected price increases that make it expensive in the mid-tier full-size pickup market.
[nativounit]
Ford’s other major EV product this year is the Mustang Mach-E. Its popularity likely has limited sales. They were 34,683 in the first 11 months, up 39.9%. For November, the figure was 3,539, up 14.6%. That progress leaves a great deal to be desired. Once again, supply problems are something management can lean on. However, unexpected price increases have been a handicap, although no one will ever know how much of one.
[wallst_email_signup]
Perhaps the part of Ford’s sales picture that should cause the greatest concern is sales of its F-series flagship. These have dropped 12.3% this year to 578,881. For November, sales dropped 8.7% to 55,189. Sales of its primary competition are also off. However, Ford needs full-sized sales to jump in 2023, or it faces another stumble.
[recirclink id=1192106]
Ford’s primary challenge for next year is whether its overall sales can rise. Through November, sales were off by 2.7% across all models to 1,685,185 in the United States. A recession may be the most difficult hurdle to overcome. However, a drop in sales will badly damage Ford’s prospects, no matter the reason. A drop is a drop, and that is what investors care about.
Ford’s Shares Crash Almost 50%
© Shattered (CC BY-SA 2.0) by Bill Burris
Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.
McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.
His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.
A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.
TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.
McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks