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Ford’s not just a car company anymore
Wall Street loves a good “hidden gem” story, and Ford just got one. Morgan Stanley reiterated its Equal-weight rating and $14 price target, but the real juice was the analyst’s argument that Ford’s Energy division could eventually be worth about $10 billion.
Why the stock popped
The market latched onto the upside angle, not the neutral rating. Morgan Stanley thinks Ford’s partnership with CATL gives it a real leg up in U.S. energy storage, especially for utilities and data centers hunting for compliant systems without the regulatory headache.
A few things are doing the heavy lifting here:
- Ford entered the energy storage game with a $2 billion investment
- Morgan Stanley thinks the business could hit roughly 25% gross margins at scale
- The firm sees the division turning EBIT-profitable by 2028
- It also thinks demand from AI-heavy data centers and utilities could keep the market growing fast
The bigger bet
This is classic Wall Street math: take a business that looks small today, slap a big future multiple on it, and suddenly the market narrative changes. Morgan Stanley says Ford Energy could generate $500 million to $600 million of run-rate EBIT at 20 GWh of production, and that kind of earnings power is what makes investors start daydreaming about the next growth engine.
Big picture: Ford is still very much a carmaker, but this note reminded traders that the company is also trying to sell the power grid’s future, not just pickup trucks.