The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: Ford Motor, Toyota Motor, General Motors, Tesla And AutoNation
Zacks Investment Research | Jan 11, 2019 03:21AM ET
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – January 11, 2019 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) , Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE:TM) , General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) , Tesla, Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) and AutoNation, Inc. (NYSE:AN) .
Here are highlights from Thursday’s Analyst Blog:
Auto Stock Roundup: Tesla Breaks Ground on Chinese Gigafactory & More
A number of auto companies reported sales figures for 2018 in the past week. Favorable economic conditions, along with growing consumers’ appetite for spacious vehicles, aided the industry to record annual new-vehicle sales of 17.27 million in 2018, marking a yearly increase of 0.3%.
Buyers continued to splurge on sports utility vehicles, crossovers and pickup trucks while passenger car sales waned, similar to 2017. Car sales contributed 32% to the total sales in 2018 while trucks and SUVs added 68%. Although the industry managed to keep its winning streak alive, the same can’t be anticipated in 2019. Rising interest rates and vehicle price hikes are expected to influence buyers to make choices.
The issue of recalls continued to hurt automakers. Ford Motor Company announced a worldwide recall of around one million vehicles to replace Takata airbags, per AP. The airbags can explode when deployed, causing injury to passengers. Again, Toyota Motor Corp. announced a worldwide recall of 1.7 million vehicles to fix faulty Takata airbag inflators, per Reuters. This recall by Toyota is part of the ongoing recall campaign announced by automakers in 2016.
Recap of the Week’s Most Important Stories
1. General Motors Company’s self-driving car unit ‘Cruise’ and food delivery service ‘DoorDash’ are partnering to test autonomous technology for meal, and grocery deliveries, per CNBC. The program, slated to begin in March, will deliver meals from certain restaurants. This will also include delivery of grocery items from some specific stores. Per the company, the program will initially be concentrated in the San Francisco area.
Auto giants are emphasizing on developing business models for driverless vehicles. In early 2018, the second-largest automaker Ford made the announcement of partnering with Domino's Pizza and delivery service ‘Postmates’ in Miami.
Starting a delivery service is a major opportunity for Cruise as the company looks for commercialization of the autonomous vehicle technology and to redefine transportation. Partnership with DoorDash will help the company take another step toward goal to deliver technology for the betterment and convenience of people. Notably, General Motors invested $1.1 billion in GM Cruise. Investments are expected to provide the capital that is necessary to reach commercialization at scale, beginning in 2019. (Read more: Zacks Investment Research
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