Shares of Ford Motor Co. F, +6.38% shot up 6.7% in morning trading Wednesday, after the auto maker reported February U.S. vehicle sales that fell sharply from a year ago, with all vehicle types showing declines, but took in a record number of new retail vehicle orders. Total sales dropped 20.9% to 129,273 vehicles, including a 25.5% tumble in truck sales to 66,158, a 11.8% fall in SUV sales to 58,396 and a 3.1% slip in electrified vehicle sales to 8,984. New vehicles orders increased four-fold to over 72,000, and said the filling of those orders are continuing to run at record levels. Among Ford’s best-selling models, February F-Series sales fell 29.8% from a year ago to 45,252 vehicles, Escape sales slipped 1.2% to 11,706, Bronco Sport sales jumped 86.1% to 10,285 and Explorer sales plunged 53.9% to 9,566. Earlier Wednesday, Ford said it was forming two “distinct” businesses, with “Ford Model e” focused on electric vehicles and “Ford Blue” focused on internal combustion vehicles. Ford’s stock has lost 10.3% over the past three months while the S&P 500 SPX, +1.02% has slipped 5.4%.
