Mark Fields and Bob Shanks, the CEO and CFO of Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) had carefully guided their shareholders about the company’s earnings which is why the company’s fourth quarter and the full year earnings that came out last week did not surprise anyone. Ford (NYSE:F) saw a decline in its earnings from 2013’s $8.6 billion to 2014’s $6.3 billion. However, the automobile company is hopeful about the year 2015.
On Jan 29th, Ford management in its conference call regarding the earnings of the 4th quarter talked about 5 things that it wants its shareholders to know.
Ford (NYSE:F)’s achievements in 2014: Mark Fields, started the conference call by talking about the company’s achievements in 2014. He said that although Ford’s earnings saw a decline, the company invested the money on a variety of fresh products which will gather a fair amount of profits for the company not only in 2015, but beyond as well. In the call, Fields mentioned the names of all the cars that the company had launched like the Escort, Ford Ka and the Everest.
For the year 2015, North America will look much better: Fields’ list of products that the company launched in 2014 began with the new F – 150. The reason behind the decline of the company’s earnings of 2014 was the problematic launch of the company’s new truck F – 150, therefore it makes sense that Field decided to begin the list with it. The new truck by Ford (NYSE:F) is not only popular but has a lot of potential for gaining profits for the automobile company. This is why Ford (NYSE:F) has high expectations from F – 150’s earnings in 2015.
Fields said that the company is expecting its pre-tax profit range for 2015 to be between $8.5 billion to $9.5 billion with higher revenue as well as operating margin than that of the year 2014.
Ford (NYSE:F)’s dividend policy: Ford (NYSE:F) takes pride in the fact that the company pays a fair amount of dividends to its shareholders. However, the company learned its lesson the hard way through the Detroit issue. Ford (NYSE:F) decided to only pay the dividend when it has the money.The company wants its shareholders to know it will only pay when it can afford to do so. However, Ford (NYSE:F) wants its shareholders to understand that the company wants them to share in with its success.
Fields said in the call that the company increased its dividends in 2014 by 25% and it plans on further increasing its dividends in 2015 as well. Earlier this month, an announcement was made by Ford (NYSE:F) about a further 20% increase in the dividends.
Ford (NYSE:F)’s U.S market share drop was merely a glitch: Ford (NYSE:F) recently lost some U.S. market shares in its 4th quarter, but the company wants its shareholders to know that the reason behind the loss was short supplies and not a decline in the demand. Fields assured that the company will easily recover the loss once its dealers have enough supplies of the vehicles.
