Ford’s automotive revenue has only grown at a compound annual rate of 2.8% over the past decade.
Relaxing pricing power and leveraging scale are not viable options for increasing profitability.
A cheap valuation and high dividend yield won’t help Ford stock break its history of market underperformance.
10 stocks we like better than Ford Motor Company ›
Ford(NYSE:F) is an iconic Detroit-based automaker known for its line of F-Series trucks, which have been the best-selling vehicles in the United States for 49 consecutive years. This is a phenomenal trend that reveals just how far the company has come to dominate this segment of the automotive market. With its history dating back to 1903, investors aren’t worried that Ford is going anywhere anytime soon.
This automobile stock is coming off a great year, with stocks producing a total return of 42% in 2025. Looking ahead, though, can Ford become a millionaire? The answer is obvious.
Image source: Getty Images.
Ford collected $35.8 billion in automotive revenue in the third quarter of 2015. Exactly 10 years later, in the third quarter of 2025 (ended September 30), the company reported automotive revenue of $47.2 billion. This translates to a compound annual gain of just 2.8%. That’s an incredibly slow pace of growth, and it should signal to investors that they shouldn’t expect big expansion numbers from Ford.For comparison, the United States gross domestic product has grown at an annualized rate of 5.4% over the past decade.
This company has reached a level of maturity that does not prepare for significant gains in terms of turnover. To be fair, this is because the global auto industry sold 15.9 million vehicles (on a seasonally adjusted annual rate) in November. This figure is lower than that of November 2015. Unless there is a sudden increase in the number of people of driving age in the countries served by Ford, this activity will remain at low growth.
It also doesn’t help that demand for new cars is very cyclical. These are huge purchases for the average household. When economic difficulties arise, as they do occasionally and unpredictably, sales may decline.
Like other mainstream automakers, Ford does not generate high profits. On total revenue of $141.4 billion in the first nine months of 2025, it reported net profit of $2.9 billion and adjusted profit of $5.7 billion. free cash flow. In order to remain competitive and keep pace with its competitors, Ford must invest significant amounts in research and development, labor, materials, and manufacturing capacity. This will always be the case.
What are the factors that can support higher profits for the company? On the one hand, Ford could try to see if it has pricing powera valuable trait valued by a purveyor of super luxury cars Ferrari has. However, this would imply that its brand is powerful enough to be able to ask consumers to pay more for its cars when there are a number of options on the market with similar features at lower prices. This strategy may not work well and could force Ford to lose customers, since price is an important purchasing factor.
The company could also figure out how to cut costs and leverage its scale to improve margins. Indeed, it was on track to cut spending by $1 billion in 2025. But Ford has been a major automaker for a long time, and its profitability remains extremely disappointing. The company’s quarterly operating margin has averaged just 3.1% over the past five years.
Despite some notable unfavorable traits, Ford could attract the attention of value investors. After all, the shares are trading at a very attractive price forward price/earnings ratio of 9.7. Additionally, the 4.17% dividend yield may be particularly attractive to income-hungry investors.
In my opinion, however, these variables aren’t enough to make Ford a stock worth buying for long-term investors. Stocks lagged behind S&P500 over the past decade, and will likely continue. So it’s not a million-dollar business.
Before buying Ford Motor Company stock, consider this:
THE Motley Fool Stock Advisor The analyst team has just identified what they think is the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now…and Ford Motor Company was not one of them. The 10 selected stocks could produce monster returns in the years to come.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004…if you had invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you would have $482,451!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005…if you had invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you would have $1,133,229!*
Now it’s worth noting Equity Advisor the total average return is 968% — an overwhelming market outperformance compared to the 197% for the S&P 500. Don’t miss the latest top 10, available with Equity Advisorand join an investor community built by individual investors for individual investors.
See the 10 values ​​»
*Stock Advisor returns January 11, 2026.
Neil Patel has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Ferrari. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Is Ford Stock a Maker of Millions? was originally published by The Motley Fool
