Ford Motor Co. F reported a 14.4% year-over-year increase in sales to 168,400 vehicles in its 20 traditional European markets in Mar 2015. With this, the company’s monthly sales outpaced the industry sales growth of 11.6%. In the first quarter of 2015, Ford’s sales increased 12.5% to 335,100 vehicles. This is the highest first-quarter sales recorded by the company since 2011.
Ford’s market share went up 0.2 percentage points to 9.1% in March. The automaker’s commercial vehicle market share went up 2.9 percentage points to 14.3% in the month. The year-over-year improvement was driven by higher sales, particularly in the private retail and fleet sectors. Ford’s sales in the higher value retail and fleet segments were 70% of total March passenger car sales, in line with the industry average.
Further, Ford’s commercial vehicle sales jumped 42.4% in the first quarter. As a result, the market share of commercial vehicles increased 2.8 percentage points to 13.3% year to date. This sales performance helped Ford to become the highest-selling commercial vehicle brand in Europe in first-quarter 2015 for the first time since the first quarter of 1997. Even the market share of commercial vehicles for the quarter emerged as the best in nearly 20 years.
Sales of passenger cars increased 6.5% to 264,440 units in first-quarter 2015. This is the best first-quarter sales volume for Ford’s passenger cars since 2012.
Sales of most of Ford’s products were strong. Good demand for the new vehicles, such as Mondeo and Transit vehicle lines boosted sales and market share in Europe. Sales of Mondeo and Kuga increased 34% and 30.7%, respectively, in the quarter. In addition, the company plans to launch several vehicles this year, which should boost sales in the future.
Ford currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked automobile stocks include Gentherm Inc. THRM, Allison Transmission Holdings, Inc. ALSN and Modine Manufacturing Co. MOD, all sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).
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