Ford shares close higher on Tuesday, auto maker to sell Craiova facility to Turkish joint venture

Ford Motor Co (F) said earlier this week its Turkish joint venture would acquire the auto maker’s Craiova facility in Romania for EUR 575 million and eventually move Courier van production there.

The acquisition is expected to be finalized in the third quarter, Ford said.

Ford manufactures Puma and EcoSport passenger models at its Romania-based facility. The company intends to start producing the Courier model there in 2023, while a battery electric version may be introduced in 2024.

Ford Otosan, the joint venture with Turkey’s Koc Holding, is to pay extra EUR 140 million to the US auto maker over the upcoming 10 years, according to certain capacity utilization criteria.

Ford Motor Co’s shares closed higher for the fourth time in the past ten trading sessions in New York on Tuesday. The stock went up 2.03% ($0.32) to $16.06, after touching an intraday low at $15.53 and an intraday high at $16.14 respectively.

Shares of Ford Motor Company have retreated 22.68% so far in 2022 compared with a 10.57% loss for the benchmark index, S&P 500 (SPX).

In 2021, Ford Motor Co’s stock went up 136.29%, thus, it outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a 26.89% gain.

Analyst stock price forecast and recommendation

According to TipRanks, at least 8 out of 16 surveyed investment analysts had rated Ford Motor Company’s stock as “Buy”, while 6 – as “Hold”. The median price target on the stock stands at $23.00.