Ford Suggests Benefits Through Global Platform Sharing

Analysts at Deutsche Bank reiterate their "hold" rating on Ford Motor F. The target price for F is set to $13.50. Despite of the lack of new targets by F, the analysts felt that “they did convey a high level of confidence in the company’s ability to maintain their recent momentum.” According to Deutsche Bank, “Mgmt suggested that the best is yet to come vis a vis the benefits of global platform sharing. While Ford’s improvement in structural cost may largely be complete, we expect further improvements in variable costs (from lower component costs), which can be re-invested into product, or support further margin improvement.” “The Ford’s management believes that government austerity programs could serve as an impetus for more capacity rationalization (Europe based companies may receive less government support). We believe that Ford has been fairly aggressive in restructuring its European business over the past several years; but we have yet to see the similarly aggressive actions on the part of Ford’s European competitors. The company has not seen any slowdown in its Chinese business, and top management appears to be devoting more time to growing in this region,” the analysts add. More Analyst Ratings here