Ford (F) Analyst Falls Asleep at the Wheel, Can't Get Ahead of the Stock

This morning, Barclays' auto analyst, Brian Johnson, boosted his price target on Ford (NYSE: F) shares by a dollar to $9. As the stock is trading around $8.75 today -- just 2% from the new target -- the analyst maintained his Equal Weight investment rating on Ford.

Today's revised target seems to be the analyst's latest attempt to play "catch-up" with both the stock and the Street. Johnson just hasn't had any luck with his coverage of Ford, downgrading the stock to Underweight (on February 2) near the 52-week low and finally upgrading it (on October 20) after it had already rallied nearly 300%. It seems that Johnson must have thought it was okay to maintain the equivalent of a Sell rating during a massive rally as long as he raised his price target each time the stock overtook his prior target... from $1, to $2, to $4.50, to $7, then $8 and now $9... ahh what's the point!?

So then what should we takeaway from the Barclays call on shares of Ford today? If anything, the realization that, while analysts do serve as a way to compare results to expectations, they are often late to the party and, as much as they hate it, traveling with a flock of "gullible" retail investors. Sorry, Brian...

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