Light Vehicle Sales Are Killing It In December: A Look Into U.S. Carmakers

On Thursday, Buckingham Research analyst Joseph C. Amaturo and his team reiterated a Buy rating and $18 price target on shares of Ford, and a Neutral rating and $32 price target on shares of General Motors. The reiterations followed month-to-date data on U.S. light vehicle sales revealing a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase over the first five selling days of December.

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Looking Ahead

The firm is now projecting a 5.3 percent year-over-year increase in sales for the full month – 18 million units versus 16.8 million units sold last year. Moreover, the experts expect retail sales to surge 5.2 percent year-over-year in December, and fleet sales to surge 5.7 percent.

Interestingly, sales of 18 million in December would mark the fourth consecutive month of an 18 million plus unit light vehicle SAAR.

On the other hand, full-size pickup sales, which are up 2.5 percent month-to-date, are not expected to outperform the industry this month. “We estimate full-size pickup sales growth YOY will continue to moderate throughout the year, reaching an annualized level of 2.1 million units compared to 2.0 million units in 2014,” the analysts commented.

A Look Into The U.S. Giants

While Ford’s retail sales are down 4.3 percent month-to-date, LMC is expecting total December sales to be up 7.0 percent. On the other hand, GM’s retail sales are up 9.8 percent month-to-date. However, LMC is anticipating total sales to be up only 0.5 percent for the month.

Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above.