Ford Motor Co (NYSE:F) released its fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday. The company fell short of expectation as earnings per share (EPS) of $0.30 came in slightly below the $0.32 that was expected by analysts. Automotive sales, however, came in at $38.7 billion and were above the $36.88 billion that was forecasted.
The problem for Ford has been its sales outside of North America as it struggled outside the confines of its home market. It has also faced many challenges this year as foreign exchange, tariffs and recalls all had adverse impacts on Ford’s bottom line.
But CEO Jim Hackett was careful not to try and deflect all the blame, explaining that the results were impacted by “headwinds outside of our control and frankly, poor performance in some parts of the business which we have now taken action to address.”
Overall, it was still a good year for Ford despite falling short of expectations. Sales came in at $160 billion, up a modest 2% from a year ago. Unfortunately, EPS of $0.92 was more than a dollar below where it was in 2017.
The stock was down 2% on Wednesday and over the past 12 months it has declined by nearly 30%. While these results weren’t bad, they won’t do the share price any favors. The stock is currently trading right around its book value and could be a decent value buy to pick up today.
There’s definitely some risk in the automotive sector these days, but in the long term I see issues relating to trade sorting themselves out. For investors willing to take on a little risk, Ford could be a stock that could generate some good returns over the long term.
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