Bank of America Comments on Management Retirement at Ford

Bank of America has published a research report on Ford Motor Company

after this morning's announcement that the company's EVP and CFO, Lewis Booth, and GVP of Global Product Development, Derrick Kuzak, would be retiring effective April 1, 2012. In the report, Bank of America writes, "Booth, a 34-year veteran at Ford, will be replaced by current vice president and Controller, Bob Shanks, while Kuzak, who served Ford for 33-years, will hand the reins over to Raj Nair, current vice president, Engineering, Global Product Development. While we believe Booth and Kuzak played important roles in Ford's turnaround, we are confident in the company's pipeline of talent, including Shanks and Nair. We would also note that we believe president and chief executive officer Alan Mulally, who was the mastermind behind Ford's turnaround, will remain at the company for at least a couple more years, providing the opportunity for Shanks and Nair to develop under his leadership." Bank of America maintains its Buy rating and $19 price objective on Ford, which is currently trading down $0.04 from yesterday's $12.84 closing price.