Jim Cramer on Ford Motor Company (F): A ‘Value Trap’ Held Down by Tariffs and Warranties

Insider Monkey
04-18

We recently published a list of Jim Cramer Put These 6 Stocks Under the Microscope. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) stands against other stocks that Jim Cramer discusses.

On Wednesday, Mad Money host Jim Cramer weighed in on how companies are grappling with the challenge of issuing guidance during the earnings season.

“So far this earnings season, the great dilemma is how the heck are you supposed to deal with your guidance? How do you come up with a forecast when you got no idea what the future’s going to look like? I don’t have it. You don’t have it. They don’t have it.”

READ ALSO 12 Stocks on Jim Cramer’s Radar Recently and Jim Cramer Discussed These 12 Stocks Recently

Cramer pointed to a series of recent developments that have added to the uncertainty. Among the most disruptive, he said, is the sudden rollout of a sweeping tariff policy, which includes a 10% base tariff on all imported goods. It has triggered retaliatory measures from several trading partners. Cramer mentioned that China has stopped accepting deliveries of Boeing aircraft. On top of that, he noted a noticeable decline in international tourism. “The whole thing’s a bit of a mess,” he said. He added:

“So aside from purely domestic companies with little economic sensitivity, how on earth can executives give you any kind of forecast for 2025 here? Coming into earnings season, I figured most of them would just simply pull their outlooks. I mean, who could blame them?”

As the earnings season is underway, however, Cramer said he is seeing a variety of responses. Some companies, especially the major banks, are opting to reiterate their full-year outlooks. But he noted that these institutions generally do not issue detailed guidance on metrics like revenue or earnings per share in the first place. Meanwhile, several companies have managed to surpass Wall Street’s expectations for the quarter, only to stick with previously issued full-year forecasts.

“But here’s the bottom line: With earnings season in full swing, I’m surprised more companies haven’t pulled their full year forecast like Delta. The most common strategy that’s been seen so far is beat and maintain from a handful of companies like the banks and a couple of healthcare companies holding up so far.”

Our Methodology

For this article, we compiled a list of 6 stocks that were discussed by Jim Cramer during the episode of Mad Money aired on April 16. We listed the stocks in ascending order of their hedge fund sentiment as of the fourth quarter of 2024, which was taken from Insider Monkey’s database of over 1,000 hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).

A Ford truck roaring down a highway, with powerful headlights blazing its way.

Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 45

In light of tariffs, a caller asked if there is a chance that companies like Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) might increase exports, which might lead to an increase in its revenue and stock price. In response, Cramer said:

“No, not a chance. Hey, they gotta make the garages bigger in Europe. I’ve been thinking about that. Now listen to me on this, okay, Ford is epoxied to 9.40 cents. You can’t pull that thing off at 9.40.”

Ford (NYSE:F) is engaged in designing, building, and servicing different types of vehicles, including trucks, cars, vans, SUVs, and luxury models under the Lincoln brand. Last week on Squawk on the Street, Cramer commented:

[Talking about an analyst downgrade] “Okay, so there’s a piece out this morning which really captures the zeitgeist of manufacturing. Ford, and it’s Bernstein, and they’re going to a sell, and they’re talking about tariffs, they’re talking about decline. Obviously, we’re going to be talking about a recession and how they do in a recession. And what it basically says is, wow, you know what, I know why this stock sells at four times earnings. And it’s a value trap. And I think it’s a most unfortunate, because Ford makes the 150 here. It’s a great product. They do assemble. We were all told, major companies like Ford were told to do some assembling here. Ford played by the rules. And because they played by the rules, they’re going to be shredded. And I think there’s a notion of, well, is that deserving? And that maybe deserves has nothing to do with it. […] I don’t like Ford. I don’t like Ford because of the warranty issue.”

Overall, F ranks 3rd on our list of stocks that Jim Cramer discusses. While we acknowledge the potential of F as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than F but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.

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