Barron's Ponders The Future Of Ford

• The cover story in this weekend's Barron's features a look at the future of an iconic Detroit automaker now that it has a new chief and a new vision.
• A companion article examines how self-driving vehicles are likely to change society and the U.S. economy.
• Other featured articles take a look at the prospects for the country's biggest box maker and a resort operator with emerging markets exposure.

As its new chief executive steers Ford Motor Company F into the world of autonomous vehicles, the beaten down stock should race higher, according to the latest Barron's cover story. CEO Jim Hackett seems to be an inspired choice to rev up the 104-year-old company's self-driving car efforts.

"Ford Races Toward an Exciting Future" by Jack Hough suggests that as Hackett lays out his case to Wall Street in the months ahead, investors should look for Ford shares to recover from a recent retreat. Including the dividends, shareholders could make 30 percent in the next year. The article even goes so far as to say that Ford stock has an excellent chance of outperforming Tesla Inc TSLA over the next five years.

What do Ford and its new head see for the future? There is now doubt that that robo-cars are on the way. The article points to a recent analysis by Goldman Sachs that determined that even as ride-hailing expands, private car ownership likely will continue growing from here, though slowly, through 2030. Also, the Ubers of tomorrow likely will turn to veteran car makers to produce and manage vast fleets of self-driving vehicles. Could the fleet-management business be more profitable for Ford and its peers than producing automobiles is today?

See what steps Ford has already taken toward the new direction seemingly signaled by this management change. As well as how it stacks up against not only peers such as General Motors Company GM, but technology giants such as Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL and its Waymo division. And find out why, like smartphone makers such as Apple Inc. AAPL before it, Ford may have to move away from hardware production and focus elsewhere to remain profitable.