UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Reiterates Overweight Rating, Raises PT on Ford Motor Company

In a report published Friday, J.P. Morgan & Co. reiterated its Overweight rating on Ford Motor Company

, and raised its price target from $13.00 to $15.00. J.P. Morgan noted, “We rate Ford shares Overweight, on the success of its ‘One Ford' strategy and current modest valuation. Ford has streamlined its operations substantially under the One Ford strategy, selling off non-core businesses and brands. Its management, designers and engineers around the world are now squarely focused on supporting the core Ford brand. As a consequence, we believe the Ford team is now more focused and working more effectively together than ever before and has accelerated the development of desirable new products that are global in nature. Ford's aggressively restructured North American operations, are now lean and highly profitable, with the One Ford strategy seemingly having helped solve the long beguiling puzzle of how to turn a profit on small cars in the United States. Ford's not having been able to restructure its operations with the assistance of a bankruptcy court does not appear to have placed it at any competitive disadvantage relative to its domestic competitors, as evidenced by its superior profitability. We expect even higher profitability in North America going forward, as Ford capitalizes upon the sustained increase in industry sales as US light vehicle SAAR continues to normalize higher.” Ford Motor Company closed on Thursday at $13.83.