5 Reasons I'll Buy Ford Motor Company

Parker Ford wants to keep customers updated on how Ford is looking as an overall company, this is a great article on Ford Motor Company's overall outlook going into 2012 from seekingalpha.com:

I wrote an article earlier this month entitled "Why I Choose To Collect My Dividends As Cash". In the article I explain my method of collecting dividend payouts, adding them to fresh capital coming in from my savings account and dropping this money into stocks I believe to be currently undervalued. Over the past few weeks, I've managed to build up enough of a sizable reserve from dividends and my paycheck to warrant a purchase in the upcoming few days. Rather than have this cash burn a hole in my brokerage account, I'd prefer to go value shopping.

After checking my current holdings to see if I'd like to add to my positions and also performing due diligence on a number of stocks on my watchlist, I believe I've made up my mind. I'm seriously looking into purchasing shares of Ford Motor Company (F) and here's why:


1. Ford's looking cheap. After the recent pullback on Friday, Ford is trading around $12.20 a share. Ford has a market cap of $46 billion, $132 billion in annual revenue and $20 billion cash on hand. Despite an incredible run up over the past few years, I feel the stock is still currently looking fairly attractive. Of course, it would behoove investors to keep an eye on the company's debt load, operating margin and growth projections. But even when considering these metrics, I believe Ford is looking undervalued.
 
2. Interest rates are staying low. The Fed has vowed to keep interest rates low for a few more years, meaning this will positively affect Ford's interest expense and assist in higher profits for the company.
 
3. Reinstatement of the dividend. Many investors were unhappy when Ford decided to cut its dividend in 2006, but unless you've been living under a rock, you're well aware Ford has decided to reinstate this payout, providing investors a 1.6% current yield. Though the company has a moderate amount of debt, it's reasonable to believe future dividend raises could be in store for shareholders.
 
4. Ford's beefed up its new lineup. This could be a controversial point, depending on if you're partial to General Motors (GM), Toyota (TM), Honda (HMC) or Nissan (NSANY.PK), but with cars as reasonable as $13,200 for the Ford Fiesta and a line of energy efficient electric and hybrid vehicles rolling out over the next 18 months, Ford's taking a serious approach to staying in this game. A quick glance at its 2012 and 2013 lineup suggests Ford is catering to a whole new class of car owners.
 
5. Ford is showing a commitment to energy effiency and sustainability. Along with improving fuel economy to meet consumer and regulatory demand, Ford is committed to reducing the weight of its vehicles and improving the aerodynamic properties of its cars. Finally, Ford has teamed up with partners like SunPower (SPWR), a solar electric panel manufacturer from California, to assist in powering a new line of electric cars with solar electricity. All in all, Ford has made impressive steps towards sustainability and this will likely help sell more cars down the line.

I've presented five reasons why I believe Ford, as a company, will thrive in the future. Despite a recent negative past in which many investors abandoned the company opting for safer havens, I feel positive about Ford's long term prospects and look forward to picking up shares this week. Don't give up on this American car manufacturer just yet.

Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, but may initiate a long position in F over the next 72 hours.

About Parker Ford Lincoln, Inc. Parker Ford Lincoln Inc., is a multi-President Award-winning dealership in Murray, Kentucky offering new Ford and Lincoln Cars, Trucks, SUVs and Crossovers. Visit us online at http://www.parkerford.com.      

Ford F-Series Trucks Number One for 35 Years Running!

Parker Ford of Murray is so proud to be a seller of the Ford F-Series Trucks:

Any long-time fan of the Ford F-Series trucks won’t be surprised to hear that for the 35th year in a row, the F-Series is the best-selling truck in America. And it has been America’s best-selling vehicle overall for 30 years. With 584,917 trucks sold in 2011, the F-Series was the only vehicle to break the 500,000 vehicle sales mark for the year.

Obviously, F-Series owners love their trucks. But in addition to that, Motor Trend magazine named the F-150 2012 Truck of the Year®, the fourth time the F-150 has captured that honor. Motor Trend praised the variety of configurations, powertrain options, efficiency, value, advanced design and performance.

How do you continue to be best-selling truck year in and year out? With capability, durability and loads of available features. For example, look at the 2012 Ford F-150 powertrain lineup that delivers a mix of best-in-class fuel economy, horsepower, torque, and capability. Consider the powerful and fuel-efficient 3.5-liter EcoBoost™ engine, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of F-150 retail sales. In fact, more than 100,000 EcoBoost F-150 pickups sold in less than a year on the market. In fact, more than 100,000 EcoBoost F-150 pickups sold in less than a year on the market.

The 2012 Ford F-Series Super Duty® gives customers what they are looking for in terms heavy duty of power and capability, ensuring it stays at the head of the pack. The 2012 Ford F-Series Super Duty tow rating is 17,500 pounds with conventional bumper hitch and 24,500 pounds with fifth-wheel hitch. The Ford-designed and Ford-built 6.7-liter Power Stroke® V8 diesel engine delivers best-in-class fuel economy and power at 400 horsepower and 800 lbs-ft. of torque. The standard 6.2-liter V8 gas engine also has best-in-class fuel economy and produces a best-in-class 405 lb.-ft. of torque and 385 horsepower.

Are you an F-Series truck owner? Or have you owned one in the past 35 years? Maybe more than one? We want to know why you have helped the truck capture the number one spot on the top-selling truck in America list for 35 years in a row. Submit a story about you and your Ford truck at Your Stories. If you have a photo or video to share, we’d love to see that to!

And if you’re a Super Duty owner, we have a special website called We Own Work, where you can view videos that share stories of workers who use Super Duty trucks to accomplish work on real job sites across the U.S.

Visit www.parkerford.com for more information on the best-selling Ford F-150.

Ford To Debut 2013 NASCAR Fusion

Parker Ford keeping you updated with the latest in Ford News

CONCORD, North Carolina — Ford will reveal its 2013 Fusion NASCAR racecar Tuesday afternoon at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The event is part of the annual pre-season tour for media covering the stock-car racing circuit.

The redesigned 2013 Fusion production car was formally unveiled two weeks ago at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show and goes on sale later this year.

Ford is the first of the four manufacturers participating in NASCAR to produce a prototype of the type of car the sanctioning body wants for the next season. Except for tweaks intended to break up the two-car tandem drafts at Daytona and Talladega, there are no significant changes in the cars for this year.

But for 2013, the intent is to create a new, differentiated exterior look for the cars, with a greater emphasis on manufacturer identity.

The present NASCAR racecar, which incorporates a number of safety features not previously included, is larger and boxier than the model it replaced. When introduced in 2007, it represented a complete changeover from the days, in the 1950s and 1960s, when competitors actually took standard production cars and modified them for racing. But it was also, to a considerable extent, a "spec" car — purposely so, in an ongoing attempt by NASCAR to equalize the capabilities of all cars to maximize close competition.

The new cars will be modeled more in the fashion of those in the Nationwide Series. When the new Cup car features were adapted to the junior division's cars, Ford and Dodge opted to replicate their Mustang and Challenger models, and the styling of the racecars' front ends was dramatically different — and much more similar to their production counterparts.

According to a Ford statement, the 2013 Fusion racecar will "signify a major return to auto manufacturer identity in the sport."

Inside Line says: Long-time NASCAR fans and purists may want more of a production-car look than the new Cup cars will have. We'll reserve judgment until the new Fusion racecar is formally unveiled.

About Parker Ford Lincoln, Inc. Parker Ford Lincoln Inc., is a multi-President Award-winning dealership in Murray, Kentucky offering new Ford and Lincoln Cars, Trucks, SUVs and Crossovers. Visit us online at http://www.parkerford.com.     

New Cars Excite Ford Executive

Parker Ford bringing you an interesting article from the Associated Press talking with Jim Farley of Ford Motor Co.: 

DEE-ANN DURBIN | Associated Press

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. marketing chief Jim Farley has a busy year ahead, with the launch of major products such as the Ford Escape and the revamp of the luxury Lincoln brand. And as the new Ford Fusion was debuting at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the new Ford EcoSport, a compact SUV for developing markets, was unveiled in New Delhi. Both will go on sale this year. The company is accelerating its plan to make global products instead of producing different cars for each market, Farley said last week at the Automotive News World Congress, an industry conference held during the auto show in Detroit.

Farley says 85 percent of Ford’s products will be built on just nine basic platforms by 2013. That’s a year earlier than its original plan. It’s also a major change from five years ago, when just 29 percent of Ford’s volume was built on shared platforms. In North America, Farley is also tasked with reinventing the Lincoln brand, which was the top luxury brand in the U.S. 15 years ago but has fallen to last place after years of neglect. Ford debuted the new Lincoln MKZ midsize sedan at the auto show and will try to create a new image for Lincoln with advertising and spruced-up dealerships. It’s a challenge Farley relishes. “It will take all of our energy to get Lincoln back,” he said.

Here are three questions and his answers:

Q. India, Brazil and China are seeing big growth in auto sales. Will the U.S. become a has-been?

A. No. The United States has never been more vibrant. Detroit is back. Walking around the auto show, I haven’t felt this vibrancy in our industry in a long time. What’s really exciting is that there’s now equal footing among all the brands, and the customer is going to have a lot of great choice. The fundamental difference about the U.S. is that it’s a healthy industry. The capacity and the demand are aligned. The customers are expecting more around fuel economy, they’re open to new technologies, and because of all that, and the pricing environment, and the fact that we have a healthy industry without too much overcapacity, I think we’re entering a golden time for us. The industries like Brazil and India are excited because of their growth, but everyone’s adding capacity, too, so the question is, are they adding too much capacity? And what will be the impact on pricing in those markets because of it?

Q. At what point do gas prices affect what people buy?

A. What we’ve learned over the last two years in the U.S. is that it’s not the price, it is the rate of change in the price. If the slope of the curve changes dramatically, segments and choices change dramatically. If the slope is gradual, say 10 cents a quarter, customers adjust. But when it changes dramatically like it did in the summer of ’08, that’s when people change. The one thing that has really changed is that every American now knows that it just takes one day – one natural disaster, one war – and tomorrow could be very different from today in terms of the gas price. And because of that, because of those shocks, customers are now more interested in fuel economy than they were a couple of years ago.

Q. What do you think of General Motors?
A. It’s fantastic to see the progress they’ve made as a competitor, what they’ve done with the Cruze and other key products is great to see. We see our company, our brand and our products as very different. But we’re really happy that their products are well-received by customers. They’re a great competitor.

About Parker Ford Lincoln, Inc. Parker Ford Lincoln Inc., is a multi-President Award-winning dealership in Murray, Kentucky offering new Ford and Lincoln Cars, Trucks, SUVs and Crossovers. Visit us online at http://www.parkerford.com.     

An Up-Close Look at the 2013 Ford Fusion!

Parker Ford bringing you a new article from Ford about the brand new 2013 Ford Fusion!

The growing number of Ford Fusion customers, as well as owners of competing vehicles, will have more reasons than ever to check out the all-new 2013 Ford Fusion the debuted at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. We caught up with John Jraiche, Chief Program Manager for the Ford Fusion, at the show and asked him to highlight some of the technology in the new model.

We also flew four Ford fans out to Detroit for the show, and when we unveiled the Fusion, they got to check it out first-hand. You can read more about this in the article, “Check Out the Ford Social Fans We’re Bringing to Detroit!” We will post a video with their reactions next week.

The 2013 Ford Fusion will give customers the power of choice with the widest-ever portfolio of fuel-efficient powertrains ever offer in the Fusion, including EcoBoost™, hybrid and plug-in hybrid engines; automatic and manual transmission offerings; and auto start stop technology. In fact, the new Fusion is the first sedan to offer gasoline, hybrid and plug-in hybrid powertrains, each with expected top fuel economy, underscoring Ford’s commitment to give customers the power of choice.

The new car is flush with more than just powertrain options. With seven must-have technologies, including a Lane Keeping System, adaptive cruise control, active park assist and MyFord Touch®, the all-new Ford Fusion shows how Ford is delivering features customers truly want and value.

The all-new Fusion also offers an unprecedented portfolio of driver assistance and convenience technologies based on sensors, cameras and radar that enable the car to see and respond including:   

-Lane Keeping System: This class-exclusive technology consists of three elements to help a driver maintain proper lane position. Using a small, forward-facing camera behind the inside rearview mirror, the system “looks” down the road, monitoring lane lines to determine that the car is on course. The system will alert a driver if drowsiness or erratic lane-keeping is detected. The second element warns a driver with a steering wheel vibration if the Fusion drifts too close to lane markings. Finally, lane keeping aid will actually apply pressure on the steering to help bring the car back into proper lane position

-Adaptive cruise control: Using forward-looking radar, this system “looks” down the road when activated, slowing the Fusion when slower traffic is detected ahead. Adaptive cruise control enables collision warning with brake support to help slow the car if the potential of a crash is detected

-Active park assist: Employing sensors, this technology can identify a suitable parallel parking space, calculate the trajectory and steer the car to properly position it within the spot. All a driver need do is operate accelerator and brake pedals

-Blind Spot Information System (BLIS®) with cross-traffic alert: Sensors in both Fusion rear quarter-panels are able to detect traffic in a driver’s blind spot, providing both audible and visual warnings if traffic – unseen by the driver – is detected. BLIS technology enables cross-traffic alert, warning the driver of oncoming traffic when backing out of a parking space with obstructed views, such as between two large vans

The 2013 Ford Fusion was revealed to media during the auto show on January 9, 2012, and you can read, “First Look at the 2013 Ford Fusion,” to learn more about the car.

Everyone get excited about the brand new Fusion! I know we are at Parker Ford!

About Parker Ford Lincoln, Inc. Parker Ford Lincoln Inc., is a multi-President Award-winning dealership in Murray, Kentucky offering new Ford and Lincoln Cars, Trucks, SUVs and Crossovers. Visit us online at http://www.parkerford.com.