Which Top Auto Stock Has the Strongest Earnings Trends: Ford, GM, Toyota, Honda or Tesla?

February 10, 2013

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Earnings trends are extremely important when evaluating stocks. At Wall St. Cheat Sheet, we view increasing earnings quarter-over-quarter as a simple way to gauge whether costs and the business model are stable. Then we like to analyze whether the company is outperforming peers in the sector. This is what we call the “E-Squared” investment analysis (‘E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter’ + ‘E = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector’).

Stocks with improving earnings metrics are worthy of your extra attention. Click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now!

Here’s your Cheat Sheet to how the top 5 auto stocks rank via earnings trends:

Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F): Current Price $13.07

Fiscal Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Revenue ($) in millions	143,580	116,280	128,950	136,260	134,300
Diluted EPS ($)	-6.50	0.86	1.66	4.94	1.42

Although revenue has picked up somewhat since 2009, EPS fell to the floor in 2012 after a promising 2011.

Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data:

Quarter	Dec. 31, 2011	Mar. 31, 2012	Jun. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2012
Revenue ($) in millions	34,580	32,440	33,210	32,170	36,500
Diluted EPS ($)	3.33	0.35	0.26	0.41	0.40

Revenue looks pretty stable, and has improved a bit over the past two quarters. EPS, however, took a major dive in March, and has subsequently stayed pretty flat over the past two quarters. Let’s keep looking…

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