Interesting news for legacy automaker Ford (F) emerged today, as President Trump revealed that the Japanese would start importing Ford F-150 pickups. Not everyone is so certain about this, however. The idea that huge pickups will be rolling down the streets of Tokyo, though, was a phrase to conjure with for investors, and shares of Ford gained nearly 1.5% in Wednesday afternoon’s trading.
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Trump made it clear: “They’re taking our cars. They’re taking the very beautiful Ford F-150, which does very well. And I’m sure we’ll do very well there and other things that do very well here, will also do well there.” Though the broad strokes seemed accurate, some were a bit less certain about the details. Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba made one part of Japan’s stance very clear, saying “This is an extremely urgent matter, so the government will do its utmost to ensure its implementation.”
Thus, the dissonance kicked in. For Japan to “take our cars” is not out of line. Many models of American car can do and have done well in Japan. But the F-150 may not be one of these; after all, the F-150 is two meters wide. Japan’s roads are typically less than four meters wide for two lanes, based on 2012 reports. So the idea that the average Taro will be tooling around Tokyo in a monster pickup may not, exactly, come to pass.
Coming Soon: The Long Beach Design Center
Meanwhile, reports note that Ford is keeping up with its design chops, planning to open a new design center in Long Beach, California. Ford opened up access to the design center recently, showing off what the place looked like, what was going on therein, and the potential future that was to come. A year prior, Ford announced plans to lease a building near the Long Beach Airport, one that measured fully 250,000 square feet.
Ford then announced, last month, it would shutter its Irvine studio and move the whole thing to Long Beach, with some elements of Irvine moving to Dearborn instead. And the whole team is now focused on designing the next generation of electric vehicles, a development many are eager to see come to fruition.
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, 11 Holds and three Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 13.2% rally in its share price over the past year, the average F price target of $10.49 per share implies 6.76% downside risk.
