Legacy automaker Ford (F) has been up around the top of the market for pickups for a long time now, with its F-150 one of the leading names. Not only is it a major part of Ford’s pickup market, but also, it is a major part of Ford’s entire production. But there are some signs that Ford is starting to fall out of favor worldwide, with a competitor stepping into the top slot. This news did not sit well with Ford shareholders, and shares slipped fractionally in Tuesday afternoon’s trading.
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A new report from JATO Dynamics noted the top 10 best-selling pickups worldwide in 2024. And the winner was not the Ford F-150, but rather, the Toyota (TM) Hilux instead. The Hilux sold 616,200 units, the report noted, while the F-150 sold just 594,100. Interestingly, Ford managed to land the fourth-place and seventh-place slots on this list as well, with the Ford Ranger in fourth and the F-250 coming in at number seven.
Though perhaps even more notably, the F-150 is only sold in “…a few select markets outside of the U.S.,” which means that Ford is basically handicapping itself in global listings. Yet despite this handicap, people turn to the F-150 in such numbers that it is one of the best-selling pickups the world over, which is actually great news for Ford.
The Things You Find in a Car’s Engine
For anyone who has ever bought a used car and discovered something the previous owner left behind, this story is for you. Chad Volk, who runs a repair shop, was recently removing the airbox on a 2015 Ford Edge in a bid to change its cooling fans. After doing that, he started to reassemble everything, but found the parts simply would not fit back together. Investigating why, Volk found something unexpected in the engine: a leather wallet.
Volk then reached out to the wallet’s owner, Richard Guilford, who had since retired from Ford. Volk used Guilford’s Ford Motor Company ID, along with Facebook (META), to find Guilford and return his wallet. Guilford was, reportedly, fixing some electrical issues in Ford Edges when he lost his wallet. The wallet fell out of his pocket as he was wearing sweatpants to work that day, something he almost never did. Volk then mailed the wallet back, completely intact, down to the $15 in cash that the wallet contained.
Is Ford Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on F stock based on two Buys, 12 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 18.22% loss in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $10.14 per share implies 9.59% downside risk.
