Ford Stock Flat As Market Rises

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published May 26, 7:45AM EDT

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Ford Stock Flat As Market Rises — © Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Ford (NYSE: F | F Price Prediction) shares are flat this year, while the S&P is up 11%. Major rival Toyota’s (NYSE: TM) shares have risen 18% over the period. Ford continues to suffer from the battering it took as its investment in EVs cratered. The Ford family has hurt the company.

No car company bragged more about how it would conquer the EV market than Ford, America’s No.2 manufacturer. It said it would open an EV “mega campus” in Kentucky as part of a massive investment. At the time, the company commented, “Ford’s $7 billion investment is the largest ever manufacturing investment at one time by any automotive manufacturer in the U.S. Part of Ford’s more-than-$30 billion investment in electric vehicles through 2025, this investment supports the company’s longer-term goal to create a sustainable American manufacturing ecosystem.”

Ford’s fortunes took a wrong turn almost immediately. It took its two most iconic brands and put them onto EV platforms. The F-150 vehicle, which had been in the US for 42 years, was rebranded the F-150 Lignithing. The Mustang, Ford’s leading sports car since 1965, was turned into a crossover called the Ford Mach-E. Neither sold more than a few thousand units a month. As US EV demand shrank, sales worsened, and Ford retreated from its hugely ambitious EV plans.

The market for people who wanted cars that were not powered completely by gas engines turned to hybrids. Toyota, criticized for not pursuing EVs aggressively, was the leader in this move. Ford repeatedly says it has a strong EV lineup that sells well. In reality, it made its hybrid move late. The fact it sells EVs today was hardly an excuse.

Ford still relies heavily on gas-powered cars, particularly the F-150. That will need to change radically for its stock price to improve.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

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.