Ford Motor cuts profitability guidance, Q3 results beat; shares slide

Investing.com — Ford Motor lowered its full-year profitability guidance on Monday despite reporting third-quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:) fell 6% in premarket trading Tuesday.

The automotive company reported earnings of $0.49 on revenue of $46.2 billion. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated EPS of $0.47 on revenue of $45.32 billion.

The bottom line was hit by a previously announced $1 billion electric vehicle-related writedown as part of a move scale down its EV plans and prioritize the development of hybrid models and electric commercial vehicles. 

Looking ahead, the company now expects adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, or EBIT, of $10B for 2024, which was at lower end of prior guidance for $10B to $12B.

“We believe Ford’s ’24 guidance cut was expected and is now more realistic,” RBC Capital Markets analysts said in a note.

“Management explained its elevated dealer inventory position and should it be able to reach its 50-60 days level by early ’25 without sacrificing too much on price, we could get more constructive,” they added.

“Until we see this, however, we remain cautious over concerns about a deflationary pricing cycle across the industry.”

Meanwhile, Jefferies analysts said Ford’s Q3 results and guidance-implied Q4 performance “signals a robust continuation of trends into Q4.”

They note that Q4 performance is just below consensus expectations and would indicate robust year-over-year growth compared to Q4 2023.

However, the company’s peers have signaled notably weaker performance in the fourth quarter “and we are keen to understand where Ford sees its advantage in the final weeks of the year,” analysts added.

Yasin Ebrahim contributed to this report.