ford stock

The company has about 16% market share in the U.S. and about 9% share in Europe. Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brand sales in North America, Europe, and South America made up 48%, 28%, and 8% of 2009 auto revenue, respectively.
Meanwhile, Ford stood above the bailouts. That's not a great tradeoff, and should be the end of the analysis for investors sensitive to risk and reward.
In other words, the current stock price is greater than what the company is expected to generate in cash over it's lifetime.
Step 3: Compare the stock's current valuation to its historical range. That's also a pretty high financial hurdle for the company to meet.
So go ahead and cheer the company and even consider buying its cars.


Ford Motor Company was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated in Michigan on June 16, 1903. The corporation's common stock was entirely owned by Henry Ford and a small group of local investors.

In 1919, Henry Ford bought out all of these investors and reincorporated the company in the State of Delaware. From 1919 to 1956, all stock in the company was owned by members of the Ford Family, the Edison Institute, and the Ford Foundation.

First offered to the public on January 18, 1956, when the Ford Foundation began to sell its stock in the company. The price was $64.50 per share.
The splits and their payment dates, which appear on the actual certificates, were

May 31, 1962: 2 for 1

May 24, 1977: 5 for 4

December 1, 1983: 3 for 2

June 2, 1986: 3 for 2

January 12, 1988: 2 for 1

July 5, 1994: 2 for 1

"Old" Ford Motor Company common stock was replaced by "new" Ford common stock, based on the Value Enhancement Plan recapitalization of the company which occurred on August 2, 2000.

Shareholders, electing to receive ALL "new" stock in exchange for their "old" stock, received 1.748175 shares of "new" stock in exchange for each share of their "old" stock.

Shareholders electing to receive the PRO RATA election of "new" stock in exchange for their "old" stock received 1.554593 shares of "new" stock in exchange for each share of their "old" stock.
Ford shareholders were instructed to allocate 33.59% of their basis in Ford Common and Class B stock to The Associates stock they received.
The company sells vehicles under the Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, and Volvo (to be sold) brands.

Since the mid-1990s, Ford has been steadily losing market share in the US car market, from 25% in FY1995 to 5.5% in FY2009.[For example, Ford has cut 40,000 jobs in the past three years and closed seven factories in the past five years. [5][6] Meanwhile the company has unveiled plans to bring six of its fuel efficient models (average fuel economy of over 30 mpg) currently sold in Europe to the U.S. market.[7] In addition to answering demand for smaller cars in the short-term, Ford hopes that offering the same lineup of automobiles in all of its international markets will provide considerable economies of scale in the long-term. Ford started discussions on the sale of Volvo in the first quarter of FY2009, and in March 30, 2010, Ford confirmed that it had sold its Volvo unit to Chinese automaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. At the end of FY2009, Ford had about 198,000 employees, down from 213,000 at the end of FY2008).[10] Ford bought several foreign luxury auto brands during the 1990s, but as the company's financial position became more tenuous, most of these have been sold off in order to focus on the core brands of Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury. 11] Ford's future plans call for the development of many more world cars, with the idea of creating a similar vehicle offering in all of its markets worldwide.[12]

Ford has also been successful in drastically improving the quality and reliability of its cars. 16] Ford Credit is currently in the process of shrinking its portfolio and loan volume due to the drop in auto sales and the sale of Jaguar and Land Rover.

Subsidiaries

In addition to the Ford, Lincoln, and Mercury brands, Ford currently owns Volvo and one-third of Mazda. Ford confirmed in late March 2010 to sell Volvo to China's Geely Automotive, and plans to complete the transaction by third quarter FY2010.[21] Ford has been able to secure its position as one of the few U.S. automakers that has refused to declare bankruptcy and ask for government aid. 22]

Ford was further helped by its lineup of new products. For example, more than 50% of reservations to purchase the new Ford Fiesta came from customers who did not previously own a Ford vehicle.[Ford's light-vehicle sales amounted to 142,006 vehicles, compared to 99,050 vehicles in February 2009.[24] Ford, Lincoln and Mercury cars, all under the Ford Company, took the lead when it climbed 54% while Ford's sport-utility vehicles grew at 39%.[Ford's October sales rose 2.6% to 132,482 vehicles, driven mostly by Ford's new lineup of fuel-efficient cars such as the Taurus sedan.[32] Indeed, Ford benefited from the $5.1 billion of cost cuts in manufacturing, engineering and advertising, as well as $1.3 billion profit from its Ford Credit.[33] This return to profitability came a year earlier than what was estimated, and with the increase in market share, many analysts believe Ford will be one of the net beneficiaries of the auto maker's ongoing crisis.[Unlike Ford's bankrupt rivals who have been given the opportunity to restructure debt, Ford's gross debt climbed $8.8 billion in the fourth fiscal quarter.[37] This offers the advantage of quickly bringing highly demanded fuel efficient cars to the U.S. market without having to invest the money and time to create an entirely new automobile.[38] In the longer-term, the company intends for all of its vehicles to be the leader (or co-leader) for fuel economy in any given car category.[40] The 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid, for example, has been ranked the best affordable midsize car by US News and World Report, considered to be a better drive than the Prius and with better initial quality than the Camry or Accord.[42] Ford hopes to build 98% of its vehicles with six-speed transmissions by 2012.

The beginnings of this massive adjustment can be seen with the 2009 Ford Focus, which has better fuel economy than the Honda Fit or Nissan Versa, and the 2009 Ford Escape, which gets better mileage than either the Toyota Rav4 or Honda CRV.[

How Ford manages to take advantage of this trend will be decisive to the company's long term growth. The first fruit of this scheme is the new Ford Fiesta, which was developed by Ford Europe but will be sold in all Ford's major markets, and Ford of Europe's iconic Ford Transit van, which will be introduced in Asia and the US in 2009.[46] Whether Ford will be able to successfully use a single product line to both cut costs and grow sales worldwide remains to be seen. 47] While these conditions temporarily supported sales, the economic downturn in the US and Western Europe has still hit Ford's sales and resulted in an increase in loan delinquencies and repossessions. 48] At the same time, Ford continues to offer greater incentives through 2008 in response to the difficult sales environment.[49] Although the continued use of generous incentives may be a necessary stop gap measure, to be profitable in the long term Ford will need to stop relying on incentives to spur demand, and instead gain buyers through the quality and appeal of its products.