Ford Offers Big Rebates On F-150 In Bid To Grow Sales
Yahoo Finance recently interviewed Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) Chief Executive Officer Mark Fields at the F-150 assembly plant, located in Dearborne, Michigan.
Ford analysts like Akshay Anand with Kelly Blue Book have made comments that the 2015 F-150 sales are not living up to expectations.
With regard to overall company sales, CEO Fields stated that he expects 2015 to be a “breakthrough” year for the car maker.
“Breakthrough in terms of our financial performance. We expect our pre-tax operating income to grow substantially this year to between $8.5 billion and $9 billion. We’re also planning to grow our operating margin and cash flow. But at the same time, we had 24 global launches last year: the most in our history and we expect 15 more this year. So expect that to positively impact our sales and our share around the world.”
Shortly after the Fields interview, Ford announced F-150 discounts of up to $10,000 on aluminum F-150 trucks. Online dealer inventory searches have yielded a relatively small number of F-150 trucks for which the discount actually applies. Matthew Rocco with Fox News observed, “By offering discounts on a hard-to-find, pricier model, Ford can boost showroom traffic with minimal risk to profit margins.”
Seventeen research firms currently publish full-year sales estimates for Ford. The consensus for fiscal 2015 is for sales of $138.44 billion. Analysts see that figure increasing to $145.77 billion in 2016: representing growth of 5.3 percent.
Consensus analysts estimates see Ford earnings per share falling 7.5 percent to $0.37 for the second quarter of 2015, which ended on June 30. Ford is set to release second quarter earnings on July 28, before the market open.
Analysts see EPS growing by 95.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2015 and by 37.1 percent for the full year. Ford EPS is expected to grow 18.2 percent in fiscal 2016 and average 17.3 percent growth annually over the next five years.
Ford currently shows operating and profit margins of 2.74 percent and 2.20 percent, respectively. The auto maker has a return on equity of 11.96 percent. At March 30, Ford had $19.54 billion in cash and total debt of $122.78 billion, giving the company a debt to equity ratio of 489.87 percent.
Ford shares pay a $0.60 annual dividend. At the current share price of $14.56 this equates to a yield of 4.2 percent. Shares of Ford currently sit 20 percent below 52-week highs and 61 percent below all-time highs printed in 1998. As of 12:00 p.m. Ford shares are trading down, $0.11 or 0.78 percent to $14.58, on average trading volume.
[F-150 Photo by Justin Sullivan / Getty Images]
[Chairman/CEO Photo by William Thomas Cain / Getty Images]
