Thread regarding Ford layoffs

Things are a mess right now of the company's own making. The merit and bonuses this year will do nothing to stem the flight from the company as other companies now gladly hire remote workers. The perfect storm of bad policy, not keeping up with the rate of inflation for compensation, terrible messaging from management, complete loss of focus, failure to recognize where your bread and butter comes from (hint: ICE vehicles!), Bill pushing more and more left-wing issues (DEI and climate change), and finally, as things fall apart the continued pushing of Farley's 1% racing hobby, you see that there is no way they attract new talent, and in fact will continue to hemorrhage existing talent.

The stock is starting to reflect all of these realities, and as Ford begins to miss dates (can you say Lightning launch?) and cannot deliver on other promises, the house of cards will begin to crumble.

I agree with the previous poster. It is time for the stockholders and board to revolt and demand Bill take his retirement, take Farley with him, bring Hinrichs back, and get this company moving in the right direction once again!

As one poster stater earlier. Company has to perform not "PIE IN THE SKY" material. Quality needs to improve big time. Execution of launches needs to improve big time. Stop cost cutting items out unless they 100% not going to impact quality.
As for this train station what a disgrace and waste of company money. Bill Jr needs to be removed. WS should be asking for his head for that "Einstein Idea". How embarrassing is that one? What's next the "OLD PACKARD PLANT".

@uqw+1fb5Mxdp Would you mind explaining? It seems I missed the thread.

@uqw+1fb5Mxdp - I missed that thread, but let me guess. Woke management hired woke architects & designers who decided that gender-free restrooms are a good thing. (big eye-roll here) That's all a guess though based on mgmt committing to foolish choices. Personally I've not been following any developments on the campus rebuild since I have ZERO desire to drive an hour each way just to do the same work that I've been doing from home for two years now.

I think what is sinking the stock and this company is that the news of the bathroom issue at the new PDC buildings got out before this board could remove that post/thread this past weekend.

Cats out of the bag. What is Ford Land going to do now??

Ford needs a believable message. I would not follow GM and everyone and declare all EVs by x years. If Ford can't build quality now what makes you think and EV gets magically built better. Stop pretending Ford is not a truck and transport company. And not everyone is buying the EV hype. Ford is trucks, SUVs, and work vans - it just needs to engineer AND LAUNCH those well and it can sell ICE forever if it wants to. ICE just costs less.
If any company took 25% of the money they are dumping into EV investments and instead spent on ICE they could move MPG from 30 to 40-50 MPG with continued turbo enhancement, fuel controls, and transmissions. Our 200k 09 Focus beater still reaches 40 mpg road trips when driven gently ( 32 city) with its ancient 2.0L and 4 speed auto - so don't think ICE can't get the numbers. There will come a day when consumers realize $50,000 for a minimal performing EV makes no sense. For those wishing higher volumes will bring down costs that EV bedtime story has been told for 30 years now. My 2 cents.

Wouldn't worry too much about it - it's back where it should be, was over hyped anyway based on nothing being delivered yet.....just like Tesla was a few years ago. If anyone remembers, even Tesla stock started trending down - and yes, it never came close to going into Ford territory, but trended down all the same - on their Model 3 roll out until they started to hit certain production numbers, then it shot back up to it's record breaking valuations (for an electric car company).

Ford is in the same boat - people want to see the actual deliveries in numbers talked about before they declare success in the conversion to ICE vs BEV vehicle manufacturer. Ford has the extra burden of being a legacy ICE manufacturer, so we have more to prove and lose that just about anyone else. The next 2 to 4 years will be really key.....and I am betting Ford will lose, simply because that is our way.

Key Points
Last week, Ford reported worse-than-expected results for the fourth quarter of 2021.
While Ford seems to be on the right track, it hasn't finished turning around many of its overseas units.
After pulling back about 30% from the multidecade high it set last month, Ford stock is starting to look attractive again.
Recently, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) has rewarded its long-suffering shareholders handsomely. Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ford stock had been in a multiyear downtrend and traded for around $10. The pandemic made matters worse, causing shares of the storied automaker to briefly plummet below $4.

However, a sharp rebound in Ford's financial results helped the stock recover to nearly $10 by the end of 2020. Over the past five months, continued financial improvement and growing excitement about the company's electric vehicle (EV) plans ignited an even bigger rally. Ford shares eventually peaked at a multidecade high of $25.87 in mid-January.

F Chart

FORD MOTOR COMPANY, DATA BY YCHARTS.

Ford stock started to retreat in late January. It took an even bigger dive following the company's fourth-quarter earnings report, tumbling 10% to $17.96 on Friday. This puts the shares at a much more reasonable level relative to Ford's current turnaround progress.

A shaky end to 2021
Last October, Ford reported stellar results for the third quarter of 2021. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) reached $0.51: nearly double the analyst consensus. Meanwhile, Ford generated $7.7 billion of adjusted free cash flow, thanks to the working capital benefit of returning to more normal production rates as the global semiconductor shortage started to ease.

By contrast, adjusted EPS fell to $0.26 in the fourth quarter: $0.15 shy of the analyst consensus. Ford posted an adjusted operating margin of 5.4% last quarter, compared to 8.4% in Q3. Adjusted free cash flow remained solidly positive at $2.3 billion.

For the full year, Ford generated an adjusted operating profit of $10 billion, adjusted EPS of $1.59, and $4.6 billion of adjusted free cash flow on $136.3 billion of revenue. Earnings and cash flow easily surpassed pre-pandemic levels, despite lower revenue due to supply constraints related to the chip shortage.

On the other hand, Ford lost money in South America, Europe, and China -- three of its five regional segments -- during 2021. In the fourth quarter, Ford's losses in Europe and China increased year over year. While management says the company is making progress on turning around its struggling overseas divisions, there's clearly a lot of work left to get those units back on track.

Expecting further progress in 2022
Ford expects production to decrease year over year this quarter, due to continued supply constraints for key components. For example, the automaker is taking downtime for many of its key products this coming week due to parts shortages. However, on a full-year basis, the company anticipates growing wholesale volume 10% to 15% compared to 2021, driving revenue higher.

Two Ford Broncos pictured on a steep mountain.
IMAGE SOURCE: FORD MOTOR COMPANY.

This revenue growth should enable Ford to expand its adjusted operating profit to between $11.5 billion and $12.5 billion in 2022, with strong growth in North America more than offsetting lower earnings from its finance subsidiary. Ford also estimates that adjusted free cash flow will improve to between $5.5 billion and $6.5 billion.

Looking to 2023 and beyond, Ford stands to benefit from easing supply constraints and restructuring efforts outside North America. That should support continued revenue and earnings growth, assisted by Ford's growing portfolio of EVs. The company also may have opportunities to cash in on its stake in Rivian and monetize its self-driving affiliate, Argo AI.

A healthy pullback
At its peak a few weeks ago, Ford stock traded for 16 times the company's 2021 adjusted EPS of $1.59. That represented a fairly aggressive valuation compared with its peers, particularly given Ford's ongoing struggles in many international markets. As a result, I sold over half of my Ford shares in December and January.

That said, I'm still hanging on to some of my investment. Ford stock could have substantial upside -- particularly after the recent pullback -- if it can get all of its regional subsidiaries back to reasonable levels of profitability.

Indeed, management's guidance calls for adjusted operating profit to rise 15% to 25% this year, which implies adjusted EPS near $2. Moreover, supply constraints are still weighing on revenue growth, and the company hasn't completed its international restructuring efforts yet. With Ford stock sitting at around $18, there's more than enough upside potential to compensate investors for the risk that Ford never entirely fixes its overseas operations.