Ford to Wall Street: Drop Dead

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

At a Detroit Economic Club event held last night in the Motor City, Blue Oval Chairman Bill Ford opined that Ford Motor Co. may have been too forthcoming with Wall Street in past years.

“In the past, maybe we said too much,” Ford said Tuesday.

In a report from Bloomberg, Mr. Ford is quoted as saying the company with his name on the building is trying to provide clarity without tipping their hand in key competitive areas. “The key is providing clarity when we’re ready [emphasis mine] so that investors can make an informed decision.”

This brusque assessment of Wall Street comes on the heels of analysts downgrading their rating of Ford stock just days after new CEO Jim Hackett told investors it’ll take time to for him to turn around the company. According to Bloomberg, which tracks recommendations of certain analysts, five moneymakers suggest buying Ford shares, while nineteen rate them a hold. Two advise selling. Perhaps they were affected by the door latch recall.

Bill Ford went on to say, “This is a very competitive world we’re in. You want to give Wall Street enough information, but you also don’t want to telegraph exactly where you’re going. And I think that’s a balance that we are going to continue to work on.”

Alrighty then. Safe to say the Glass House won’t be sending any cards or brightly wrapped gifts to Wall Street this December.

This new tight-lipped policy is undoubtedly a response to the market’s persistent pessimism of Ford, despite the Blue Oval beating analysts’ earnings expectations every quarter so far this year. This is without mentioning the roughly $40 billion in cash Ford is reported to have lying around.

How has Wall Street rewarded Ford’s good performance? With a stock price mired in the $12 range, down 2.5 percent, year-to-date. Meanwhile, GM is up nearly 20 percent in the same timeframe. Tesla continues to mystify by reaching stratospheric stock market heights, despite its current inability to turn a profit making cars.

Sure, Ford could stand to do a few things in a speedier manner, such as bringing the Ranger and Bronco to market in order to tap hot segments. Ford is not exactly in turmoil, though, so Mr. Ford’s annoyance at Wall Street is largely justified, in this author’s opinion.

Investors seem to buy into the narratives they want to hear, and whatever they’re hearing right now about Ford, they don’t seem to like — despite Ford being profitable for ages and having enough resources to walk its own path. Perhaps Mr. Ford could take a page from Sgt Dignam in The Departed who, when asked about disclosure, opined, “Treat them like mushrooms. Feed ‘em shit and keep ‘em in the dark.”

[Image: Ford Motor Company]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • MrGreenMan MrGreenMan on Nov 01, 2017

    Take it private.

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    • Brn Brn on Nov 01, 2017

      Not a terrible idea. I've worked for privately owned companies, family owned companies, publically owned companies, and in the public sector. The worst was the family owned company (it's amazing what money and greed can do, when a small group is fighting over a couple billion dollars). Close to the bottom was the public company (way too focused on today's stock price). The best was the private company, as they focused on the long term. Public sector wasn't too bad either, as they focused on doing the right thing. Biggest problem in the public sector is trying to work with an excessive number of rules.

  • Its me Dave Its me Dave on Nov 01, 2017

    So I should spend my money on Ford stock so they can put it in the bank with the rest of the $40B in STA? I can do that all by myself. These car companies should go back to the strong emphasis on dividends, and let the market price adjust around that.

  • Dale Had one. The only car I ever bought because of a review in a guitar magazine.Sure was roomy inside for such a small car. Super practical. Not much fun to drive even with a manual.Sent it to college with my stepson where it got sideswiped. Later he traded it in on an F-150.
  • Bd2 Hyundai's designs are indeed among the most innovative and their battery technologies should allow class leading fuel consumption. Smartstream hybrids are extremely reliable.
  • 28-Cars-Later So now H/K motors will last longer in between scheduled replacements. Wow, actual progress.
  • AZFelix I have always wondered if the poor ability of Tesla cars in detecting children was due to their using camera only systems. Optical geometry explains that a child half the height of an adult seems to have the same height as that same adult standing twice as far away from the viewer.
  • 28-Cars-Later Actually pretty appealing (apparently I'm doing this now). On a similar note, a friend of mine had a difficult situation with a tenant which led to eviction and apparently the tenant has abandoned a 2007 Jag S-Type with unknown miles in the garage so he called me for an opinion. Before checking I said $2-3 max, low and behold I'm just that good with the 3.0L clocking in at $2,3 on average (oddly the 4.2 V8 version only pulls $2,9ish) and S-Types after MY05 are supposedly decent.
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