A rocky transition to electric vehicles in the United States could be a blessing in disguise for one of the country’s legacy automakers, according to Morgan Stanley. Analyst Adam Jonas named Ford as the investment bank’s top pick among U.S. automakers in a note to clients on Thursday. Jonas said that scaling back spending plans for electric vehicles (EV) can help Ford impress Wall Street. “Slower EV adoption is a POSITIVE for Ford. While progress will be measured over multiple quarters, we are confident that Ford can act to mitigate the source of value destruction,” the note said. Automakers like Ford and General Motors have committed to spending billions of dollars in recent years to expand their electric vehicle lineup after Tesla ‘s success left their stocks as underperformers. But demand has proven weaker than the automakers expected, and Ford announced in January that it was cutting back production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup truck. Jonas said that curtailing spending tied to electric vehicles will help highlight Ford’s strengths in other areas and reassure worried shareholders. “In the auto industry, it’s the $10bn that you don’t spend that can add more value than the $10bn that you do spend. While we do not expect a share buyback campaign as GM has undertaken, we believe Ford has significant room to preserve capital and return excess cash to shareholders. Investments in EV, [autonomous vehicles] and Software Defined Vehicles (SDVs) can continue in partnership with tech specialists and partners,” the note said. Morgan Stanley has a price target of $15 per share on Ford, which is about 28% above where the stock closed on Wednesday. The firm also has a bull case estimate of $21 per share for the stock. Meanwhile, Ford has a dividend yield of 5.1%, according to FactSet. F 1D mountain Shares of Ford rallied on Thursday afternoon after Morgan Stanley named the stock a top pick. Ford is set to report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 6. The stock was up nearly 3% in afternoon trading on Thursday.
