The Ford Motor Co. logo(Photo: Gene J. Puskar / Associated Press)

Ford Motor Co. started the week with Goldman Sachs Equity Research, with a stock recommendation lifted from "neutral" to "buy" on Monday.

In addition, Goldman raised its 12-month price on Ford to $ 12 from $ 9. The stock this month dipped to a nine-year low, falling as low as $ 8.19.

Key factors influencing the revised recommendation included rolling out new models, particularly the release of SUVs, and corporate restructuring.

"While we still expect a downward earnings trajectory into 2019 (North America profit under-pressure), we believe that we are going to be able to make the most of the market. David Tamberrino, a chartered financial analyst at Goldman, said.

In short, he is assuming 2019 is lower than 2018, but 2020 will show gains.

"With investor feeling still skewed towards GM over Ford, we would be in favor of incremental announcements (i.e. plant closures and business decisions around underperforming regions / product lines) would likely be viewed positively."

more: Ford stock wins biggest increase since 2011 after earnings report

Goldman said Ford has "underperformed its peers" because of its old product lineup in both the U.S. and China. Goldman Sachs also pointed to Ford's $ 25.5 billion plan to drive in efficiencies related to material costs, product engineering, manufacturing and marketing.

Ford spokesman Brad Carroll said, "The company is moving forward with a sense of urgency and taking proactive steps to redesign and restructure the business." We will continue to capitalize on our strengths, where we will continue our efforts. We are confident that we will continue to recognize our progress. "

On Monday, Marketwatch lists its aggregate analyst recommendations for Ford: "buy", "hold" and sell.

Goldman Sachs did not know that it's a potential for "North America production declines, a dividend cut, F-Series share market losses, reversion of mix-shift back to passenger cars and continued declines in China."

"While we consider these as possible risks," said Goldman Sachs, "We see the potential impacts as we are limited in the current backdrop."

Ford Motor Co. saw its stock price jump 9.9 percent on Oct. 25, the day after issuing its third-quarter earnings report, which showed $ 1 billion in profit, down 37 percent from the same period in 2017. On Monday, the stock climbed nearly 6 percent to $ 9.50 by 9:45 am EDT.

"Ford is too big to fail, and even though it has been struggles recently, there is no way that Ford would not exist in five or 10 years," Ivan Drury, senior analyst for Edmunds, said Monday. Ford receives positive feedback and provides a morale boost internally, which is needed as a lot of scrutiny, and layoffs linger in. the future. "

Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: [email protected] or 313-222-6512. Follow her on Twitter @phoebesaid

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