Ford Motor Co. shares continued their decline on Thursday as the carmaker’s weak outlook for this year unsettled Wall Street.
Ford’s stock F -7.14% dropped more than 6%, heading for its lowest close since Jan. 11, 2021, when it ended at $9.30. The stock was experiencing its worst one-day percentage decline since an 8.4% drop on Oct. 29.
Ford’s 2025 guidance “came in well below consensus, but some investors wonder if this could mean numbers are derisked,” Tom Narayan at RBC Markets said in a note on Thursday.
It may be too soon to determine, the analyst said. Ford’s high inventory days could result in lower net pricing. The carmaker also faces challenges from launch costs and increased electric-vehicle volumes cutting into profits, Narayan said.
Executives sounded upbeat on a call with analysts after the results, highlighting Ford’s portfolio strength in its core truck market and expansion opportunities in software and services, BofA analyst John Murphy said.
Murphy was also optimistic about Ford, particularly for the second half of the year. Ford’s “product cadence combined with management’s focus will support better profits and progress” during that period, he said.
On Wednesday, Ford projected 2025 adjusted profit before interest and taxes between $7 billion and $8.5 billion, a decline from last year’s adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $10.2 billion. It also came in weaker than Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $8.3 billion.
That places significant pressure on the second half of the year, UBS analyst Joseph Spak said. Earnings before interest and taxes would need to average about $2.6 billion per quarter in that period, whereas the second-quarter 2024 average was around $2.3 billion, he said.
Ford shares have declined 22% over the past 12 months, in contrast to the S&P 500 index SPX +0.07%, which gained about 23% in the same period.
