Earnings at Ford in 2022 were strong, despite supply-chain problems that constrained production and sales.
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Ford
Motor’s fourth-quarter results better top expectations if the stock is to continue its recent bounce.
The bar for what’s acceptable from
Ford
(ticker: F) was raised after
General Motors
(GM) reported earnings on Tuesday. GM beat top and bottom line estimates. What’s more, GM expects to earn operating profit of about $11.5 billion in 2023. Coming into the report, Wall Street was projecting about $10.5 billion.
GM shares rallied 8.4% after it reported Q4 numbers.
For
Ford,
Wall Street is looking for Q4 earnings per share of about 62 cents and operating profit of $3.4 billion from sales of $40.6 billion.
For 2023, Wall Street expects about $10 billion in operating profit in 2023. Guidance for operating profit will be a key number for investors to watch.
Operating profit for Ford in 2022 should amount to about $11.4 billion. Profits are expected to drop this coming year due to a mix of factors including higher interest rates, falling car prices and rising labor costs.
Options markets imply Ford shares will move about 6%, up or down, following earnings. Shares have moved an average of about 5%, up or down, following the past four quarterly reports. Shares have risen two times and fallen two times.
Management hosts a conference call at 5 p.m. Eastern time to discuss results.
Coming into earnings, its stock is up about 19% year to date, about 13 percentage points better than the
S&P 500.
Shares are down about 33% over the past 12 months. The stock gained 2.1% on Wednesday. The S&P 500 gained 1.1%. The
Dow Jones Industrial Average
finished flat.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
Credit: marketwatch.com