By Al Root
Ford Motor investors have caught AI fever, and shares of the auto maker just won't stop. They soared again on Thursday, despite one analyst taking a more cautious view of the company's new energy storage opportunity.
The Detroit-based auto maker's stock traded as high as $14.94 and closed at $14.48, up 6.7%, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average both gained about 0.8%.
That jump followed a massive 13% gain on Wednesday.
To be frank, the reason for the Wednesday rise was difficult to suss out. It seemed to be tied to Ford Energy, which the company unveiled earlier in the week. The new business will use Ford's lithium-ion battery capacity to build storage systems for utilities and data centers in the U.S.
It's a good idea, but not a new one. General Motors does something similar. Tesla has a large energy storage business. It has deployed about 45 gigawatt hours of battery storage over the past 12 months. That's enough power to run several thousand American homes for a year. Ford plans to deploy "at least 20 gigawatt hours annually, with first customer deliveries planned for late 2027."
"We believe that there is a fairly high likelihood that Ford signs an energy storage system supply agreement with large commercial customers, and potentially hyperscalers, over the next few months," wrote Morgan analyst Andrew Percoco in a Tuesday evening report.
That could have helped shares on Wednesday. To be sure, anything tied to data center power has soared recently. Through midday trading on Thursday, shares of Caterpillar, which sells power turbines, and GE Vernova, which sells utility-scale power generation equipment, were up 63% and 83% over the past six months, respectively.
Maybe Ford is attracting that type of investor interest.
Percoco sees Ford Energy turning an operating profit by 2028 and generating almost $600 million in operating profit by 2030.
But Barclays analyst Dan Levy wrote Thursday that the opportunity is in the range of $300 million to $500 million, adding, "the opportunity should be balanced against questions of execution and ramp."
Both analysts rate Ford stock a Hold. Percoco's target is $14. Levy's target is $13. The average analyst price target for Ford stock is about $13.50 a share.
The recent rally had the stock blow past that number.
Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 14, 2026 16:20 ET (20:20 GMT)
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