Ford Stock In Spotlight After Bernstein Downgrade, Price Target Cut: Retail Stays Pessimistic

Shares of Ford Motor Co. (F) traded 0.4% lower on Wednesday morning after Bernstein downgraded the legacy automaker stock to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market perform’ in the wake of the 25% auto tariff imposition by the Trump administration.

The firm also cut the price target on Ford by $2.40 to $7, according to TheFly.

The new price target implies a 19.4% decline from the stock’s closing price of $8.69 on Tuesday.

Bernstein said that President Trump’s tariffs are impacting Ford just as consumer confidence wanes. The 25% auto tariffs, applicable on vehicles imported into the U.S., became effective last week. Tariffs on auto parts are expected to follow.

“It is time to confront some hard truths, once more: vehicle tariffs have commenced, and parts tariffs are likely to follow within a month. We ... find significant downside not priced by the market yet,” Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska said in a note, as reported by CNBC.

“As tariff pressures intensify and consumer sentiment weakens, we expect Ford’s shares to remain under pressure,” he added.

The analyst expects billions of dollars less in auto free cash flow from 2025 to 2027 as the company faces potential price hikes and market share changes.

Bernstein also cut its earnings-per-share expectations by around 41% to $0.86 for 2025 and by 36% for 2026, as per the CNBC report.

Earlier this week, Bernstein downgraded Ford’s rival General Motors to ‘Underperform’ from ‘Market Perform’ with a price target of $35, down from $50.

On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around Ford shares remained within the ‘extremely bearish’ territory, albeit with a higher score, coupled with ‘low’ message volume over the past 24 hours.

Ford shares are down by over 10% this year and by over 36% over the past 12 months.

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