Ford Motor Co. (F) reported a 6.6% year-over-year surge in sales to 605,400 vehicles in Europe in the first half of 2014. The popularity of its new products as well as the improvement in industry sales supported the upside.
Notably, Ford surpassed the industry growth rate of 6.3% in the Euro 20 market, which comprises 20 traditional markets. However, the company’s market share remained in line with the year-ago level of 7.9%.
Meanwhile, Ford’s sales in Europe increased 2.2% to 109,000 units in June this year. The automaker has launched 15 new or revamped vehicles in the continent since Oct 2012. Considering only this year, the company has launched the two-tonne Ford Transit, Tourneo Courier and Transit Courier. Moreover, the new Focus range (including the Focus ST), the Mondeo family (including the Mondeo Hybrid) and the C-MAX Energi PHEV are scheduled to be launched later this year.
Ford’s share in the Euro 20 market fell 0.2 percentage point to 8% year over year in Jun 2014 as industry sales growth surpassed Ford’s sales growth.
In the Euro 22 region and the 50 European markets it covers, Ford’s sales fell 0.3% and 0.4% year over year, respectively, in the first half of 2014. Meanwhile, sales in the Euro 22 and Euro 50 regions deteriorated 3.6% and 3.9%, respectively, in June.
Ford’s commercial vehicle sales jumped 10.5% to 104,000 vehicles in the first half of 2014. As a result, the market share of commercial vehicles increased to 10.5% over the same timeframe, marking the highest since 1998. Moreover, the company’s commercial vehicle market share in June was the maximum since 1996.
Ford sales to European retail and fleet customers went up 1 percentage point to 72% of total sales in the Jan–Jun 2014 period, indicating 2 percentage points above the industry average. Sales of Ford vehicles featuring the 1.0-litre EcoBoost advanced petrol engine surged 15.3% year over year in the first half of 2014.
Ford currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Some better-ranked automobile stocks worth considering include Wabash National Corp. (WNC), China Automotive Systems Inc. (CAAS) and Autoliv, Inc. (ALV). Wabash National and China Automotive sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Autoliv carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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