Shares of Ford Motor Company (
F
) are trading higher Monday ahead of the automaker's first-quarter
earnings report, expected out before the market opens Tuesday. The
stock last traded at $15.53, up 0.7 percent from Thursday's closing
price.
Ford is expected to report EPS of $0.50 on revenue of $30.64
billion. Last quarter, Ford reported EPS of $0.30 on revs of $32.5
billion, mixed versus the analyst consensus. Ford took a $960
million debt conversion charge in the quarter, which reduced EPS
results. Looking back at the first quarter of last year, Ford
issued non-GAAP EPS of $0.46 on sales of $28.1 billion, compared
with consensus of $0.31 for EPS and $30.49 billion for sales.
Shares fell 13.6 percent through the quarter and are up 4 percent
since.
Ford stock is trading at a P/E of 7.8x FY12 EPS estimates, compared
with 6.1x at General Motors (
GM
), 29.9x for Toyota (
TM
), and 10.3x for Honda Motor (
HMC
).
Data from Bloomberg has 11 analysts with a Buy rating on Ford, 8
with a Hold, and none suggesting to Sell. The analyst price target
average is $19.50, with a high of $22 and low of $17. Shares have
traded in a range of $18.97 - $9.75 over the last 52-weeks.
Analyst Summary
- Barclays is looking for EPS of 57 cents. Sees rising gas
prices accounting for an 8.1 percent decline in Ford's market
share during 2011. While the firm would like to see Ford report a
strong number in order to calm investor fears related to the
Japanese disasters, Barclays notes Ford could actually benefit
from the events as Japanese-based automakers such as Toyota may
be feeling a much greater impact. "We estimate Toyota's
production will be cut by more than 50 percent, which creates a
share gain and pricing opportunity for Ford."
Barclays maintains an Overweight rating and $20 price target on
Ford shares.
- Deutsche Bank is relatively bullish on Ford, saying that it
and General Motors will both see some upside as Japanese OEM
inventories fall. "And based on capacity constraints that we see
building up, we believe that pricing is going to improve
significantly."
With European sales likely to slow as debt concerns still linger,
Deutsche Bank believes investors will turn their attention to
Ford's outlook for global sales as well as any color on the
continued escalation of crude prices.
The firm maintains a Buy rating and $20 target on the stock.
Stay tuned to StreetInsider.com's
EPS Insider
section to see our analysis of the highly-anticipated quarterly
results within seconds of the release.