Legacy automaker Ford (F) has had its share of recalls lately, and then some. In fact, Ford just announced a recall hitting 1.4 million F-150 pickup trucks. This is doubly bad for Ford as, in many ways, the F-150 is Ford’s flagship product. But Ford investors have heard tales of recall before, and took this latest one in stride as well. Ford shares were up 3.5% in Friday’s trading.
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The issue prompting the recall of the roughly 1.4 million trucks in question is a gearshift issue, reports note. The truck can lose signal between the transmission range sensor and the powertrain control module transmission. This signal loss, in turn, can cause the F-150 to unexpectedly downshift into second gear of its own volition, which could cause the vehicle to lose control.
The good news is that there may be some warning if this issue impacts your vehicle in particular. An illuminated malfunction indicator light, or “wrench light” on the dashboard could emerge. As for a fix, well, that will land squarely in the dealerships’ laps once more, as letters about impact are set to go out April 27, and a Ford or Lincoln dealer will have the relevant components replaced therein.
Another Win at Nurburgring
Ford has had a Mustang GTD out at the Nurburgring track for a while now, and it managed to turn in yet another impressive victory. The Mustang GTD, or rather the GTD Competition with a set of changes, managed to turn in a lap of six minutes, 40.8 seconds to become the second fastest overall time at the track. There was a caveat with this win, though, but a win was a win, especially at Nurburgring.
The GTD’s time managed to land it a slot as the second-fastest production car overall. But since the car is not yet in production, it currently ranks as the sixth-fastest car on the Nurburgring’s “pre-production/prototype class leaderboard.” Once the GTD goes into production, though, it will ascend to the second-place slot behind the Mercedes-AMG (MBGAF) One, reports note.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on four Buys, eight Holds and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 29.18% rally in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $13.88 per share implies 7.76% upside potential.
