Ford Motor Co. stock on Wednesday closed at its best in six years, getting a boost from Credit Suisse turning bullish on the shares and rating it a buy.
Ford F, 3.30% shares rose 4% to end at $16.04, their highest close since April 28, 2015, when they closed at $16.06. That 4% bump was the largest one-day percentage increase since Oct. 7, when the shares rose 5.5%.
Credit Suisse analyst Dan Levy moved his rating on Ford stock to the equivalent of buy, from hold, and raised his price target to $20, from $15, implying a 25% upside over Wednesday’s share price.
The analyst downgraded Ford early last year on concerns that the company was struggling to “two clocks,” he said: Balance their near-term execution issues with the long-term transitions of the industry.
“Yet in the past year, we’ve seen a significant turnaround under way at Ford — it has ended its cycle of quarterly earnings disappointments, and its transition to an EV/digital world has sharply accelerated,” Levy said in a note Wednesday.
“We believe there is more opportunity ahead,” he said. Chief Executive Jim Farley, who took over as the top executive at the auto maker in October 2020, “has Ford on the right track,” with the company moving quickly and with greater urgency toward the transition to an EV and digital world and, with investors more confident about its financial outlook.
Ford is scheduled to report third-quarter earnings next week. It surprised Wall Street in July when it reported a second-quarter profit as strong demand for its vehicles allowed it to forgo discounting them.