The 2021 Ford Mustang Mach-E.
Courtesy of Ford
Shares of Ford Motor raced higher again on Thursday but the car company hasn’t become a meme stock. Two positive data points illustrate how much is going right these days.
Shares were up 7.7% in late trading to $16.04, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 had both fallen. Ford stock closed at $15.99, up 7.2%.
For starters, Ford launched a compact pickup truck called the Maverick, calling it “the vehicle you didn’t see coming” in Thursday ads that promise more details in about a week. The company has a point: Investors didn’t see the launch coming.
The second dose of good news came from May delivery statistics, also released Thursday. Sales of electrified vehicles, a category that includes hybrids, grew 184% year over year. The all-electric Mustang Mach E and the hybrid F-150 led the way.
Ford delivered 1,945 Mach E vehicles and 2,852 hybrid F-150s. Total U.S. truck sales came in at 75,665 units. Ford’s total sales came in at 161,725 vehicles, up about 4% compared with May 2020.
With Thursday’s gains, Ford stock is now up more than 80% year to date and up more than 140% over the past 12 months. Thursday trading also represents a new intraday 52-week high. Shares are up more than 160% from an intraday 52-week low of $5.74 hit in July.
Barron’s recently wrote positively about Ford stock, saying new management could reinvigorate product development and improve profit margins. Since that article appeared in November, shares are up about 76%. We didn’t see things happening so rapidly, but new CEO Jim Farley is moving fast, introducing products such as Maverick, and pushing his company into EVs.
Investors are reacting to his speed.
Write to Al Root at [email protected]
