The Ford Stock Problem: The Price Today and the Dividend Question

So, Ford’s CEO Jim Farley stood on his digital soapbox, saw GM’s Corvette post a faster lap time at some track in Germany, and declared, “Game on.”

And just like that, investors, the people who actually own the company, watched the Ford stock price take another little dip (“Game On.” Ford Stock (NYSE:F) Slips on Plans to Return to the Nurburgring). Because they, unlike the C-suite, can do basic math. They see a company hemorrhaging cash from every conceivable orifice and then watch the CEO decide the most important thing to do is spend a fortune to go a few seconds faster around a circle.

Give me a break.

This isn't a game. A game is what you play on a Saturday afternoon with a beer. This is a desperate, pathetic attempt to distract from the five-alarm fire burning down the entire Ford Motor Company. While Farley is playing Top Gear with a multi-million dollar prototype, the company he runs is staring down the barrel of some truly terrifying financial numbers. But hey, at least the Mustang will have some cool new aerodiscs on its wheels, right?

Fiddling While Dearborn Burns

Let’s be brutally honest about what this Nürburgring rivalry is. It’s a vanity project. A corporate pissing contest between two dinosaurs, Ford and GM, who are terrified of becoming fossils. Ford had a fast lap with its Mustang GTD. Then GM, with its own mountain of problems, sent out a Corvette to beat it. Now Ford, wounded and indignant, is back with a new prototype, adding little fins and covers to shave off milliseconds.

Farley’s "Game on" is supposed to sound bold. Inspiring, even. But when you translate it from PR-speak into English, it means: “We are prioritizing our executive egos over your investment.”

It’s like watching a guy whose house is on fire ignore the flames to go outside and meticulously polish the chrome on his lawnmower. The optics are just staggering. Ford’s EV unit has torched an unbelievable $5 billion. That’s not a rounding error; that’s a black hole of capital that was supposed to be the future. Instead, it’s an anchor dragging the whole company down, making investments in things like Rivian stock look like a stroke of genius by comparison. Add another $2 billion in tariff-related losses and a conga line of recalls that are costing a fortune to fix, and you start to get the picture.

And their solution is to… what, exactly? Win a shiny, meaningless trophy in Europe? How does a faster lap time fix the quality control issues that have plagued their cars for years? How does it help them compete with companies that are actually innovating instead of just playing dress-up with their old muscle cars? It doesn't. It's a magic trick. A "look over here!" while the ship is taking on water.

The Numbers Don't Lie, Even If Executives Do

If the top-line losses weren’t bad enough, the real horror show starts when you dig into the company’s fundamentals. I’m not a Wall Street quant, but I can read a balance sheet, and Ford’s looks like a cry for help.

Their debt-to-equity ratio is 3.56. For anyone who doesn’t speak finance, that’s high. Dangerously high. It means the company is propped up by a mountain of leverage. But the real kicker, the number that should be keeping every holder of Ford Motor Company stock up at night, is the Altman-Z score. It’s sitting at 1.02.

That isn't just a bad score. No, 'bad' doesn't cover it—this is a catastrophic, flashing red light. A score below 1.8 suggests a company is at risk of bankruptcy within the next two years. Ford is at 1.02. They are deep in the danger zone. We're not talking about a speculative meme stock here; I'd probably feel safer looking at the Dogecoin price chart. This is one of the pillars of American industry, and its financial health score is screaming "Mayday!"

So, you see this number, this bright red flag flapping in the wind, and then you see the CEO tweeting about racing. What are you supposed to think? Are we, the public, the investors, the customers, just idiots? Do they think we can’t see the disconnect? Or worse, do they just not care? Maybe they think if they generate enough hype, the price of Ford stock will magically levitate, disconnected from the grim reality.

It’s insulting. Offcourse, Wall Street analysts, in their infinite wisdom, have slapped a “Hold” rating on F stock. Let me translate that for you, too. “Hold” is what you say when you want to scream “Sell!” but you’re afraid of losing your access to the company’s conference calls. It’s the most cowardly, non-committal rating possible. It’s a shrug in financial form.

Sometimes I wonder if I’m the crazy one. Maybe this is just how big business works now—all spectacle and no substance. All sizzle, no steak, and the kitchen is on fire. But then I look at the stock charts for Microsoft stock or Amazon stock price and remember that some companies actually focus on building things and making money instead of playing race car driver.

It's a Circus, and We're Not Amused

Look, I get it. Competition is cool. Racing is exciting. But this isn't that. This is a symptom of a deeply sick corporate culture, one that values flashy headlines over fiscal responsibility. It’s a desperate attempt to project an image of strength and innovation while the foundational structure of the company is cracking.

Every dollar spent on developing a new winglet for a Nürburgring prototype is a dollar not spent on fixing the broken EV strategy, improving quality control, or paying down that terrifying mountain of debt. Jim Farley can say "Game on" all he wants, but for the people whose retirements are tied up in Ford stocks, the real game is seeing if the company can survive its own leadership. And right now, I wouldn't bet on it.