Ford Gains On Impressive 3Q US Auto Sales Data

Shares of Ford Motor Company rose 2.1% on Friday after the automaker reported 3Q US sales data which reflects the industry’s stronger-than-expected recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The company noted that though its US auto sales fell 4.9% to 551,796 units year-on-year, it significantly outperformed an industry decline of 10%.

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Ford’s (F) 3Q sales data also reflected a robust sequential improvement of 27.2%. Strong demand for pickup trucks and sports utility vehicles mainly boosted the second-largest US automaker’s 3Q sales.

The combined sales of F-Series and Ranger pickup trucks increased 4% to 249,997 units year-over-year. Sales for F-Series pickup trucks grew 3.5% while Ranger demonstrated an 8.2% growth. Deliveries for Ford’s sports utility vehicles – Explorer and LincoIn – grew 73.9% and 222%, respectively, on a year-over-year basis. (See F stock analysis on TipRanks).

Mark LaNeve, Ford vice president, U.S. Marketing, Sales and Service said, “Despite the challenging pandemic environment, our retail unit sales were down only 2 percent and we had our best third quarter of pickup truck sales since 2005. F-Series finished the quarter on a high note with September sales up 17.2 percent with over 76,000 F-Series pickups sold. This is a testament to our winning product portfolio and the performance of our great dealers.”

On August 17, Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy reaffirmed a Hold rating on the stock and a price target of $8 (16.1% upside potential). In a broader industry research note, Levy said that Ford should use the strength in its North American trucking business to fund its electric vehicle development programs.

Currently, the Street is sidelined on the stock. The Hold analyst consensus is based on 6 Holds, 3 Buys and 1 Sell. With shares down nearly 25.9% year-to-date, the average analyst price target of $7.54 implies upside potential of 9.4% from current levels.