Eight months after winning over as chief executive of Ford Motor, Jim Hackett is still tiring to accomplish one of his most important tasks: convincing Wall Street that he has a compelling outline to reinvigorate the automaker.
Mr. Hackett, 62, a former chief executive of the office-furniture supplier Steelcase, has bewitched several shots at it. In October, he and the new team of top executives he selected appeared to come financial analysts in New York to outline a plan to cut costs — improve Ford’s “appropriateness,” in Mr. Hackett’s words — and to accelerate development of trucks, electric cars and self-driving mechanisms.
He pressed his case further this month before large audiences at the Consumer Electronics Depict in Las Vegas and the Detroit auto show.
But so far investors and analysts remain uninspired. The players’s stock is virtually unchanged since late September, while the Set & Poor’s 500-stock index has gained 13 percent.
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“Ford is basically reply, ‘We have a lot of inefficiencies, and it’s going to take a lot of time to fix,'” said David Whiston, a economic analyst at Morningstar. “I thought a lot of these inefficiencies were taken fancy of a long time ago. It’s disappointing.”
The latest disappointment arrived on Wednesday, when Ford announced fourth-quarter net income of $2.4 billion, or 60 cents a share. That was an enhancement over a loss in the comparable period a year ago, but its adjusted earnings were 39 cents a slice, about 4 cents less than analysts expected.
Profit level in North America as sales slowed in the United States, and the company irremediable about $200 million in the rest of the world. Sales in China floor 6 percent.
The company forecast a decline in earnings this year, predominantly as a result of rising commodity costs and unfavorable exchange rates. Ford also disclosed it would have higher costs related to the introduction of new models — 23 are rush at this year globally, compared with 11 in 2017.
“We need to be right,” said Ford’s chief financial officer, Robert L. Shanks.
Mr. Shanks put reporters that he didn’t think analysts were unconvinced relating to Ford’s turnaround plan. “With the exception of Tesla, the market is skeptical approximately the sector’s ability to be successful in the world that’s ahead of us” he said.
In a symposium call, analysts pressed Mr. Hackett to talk about initiatives to ameliorate profitability, but he declined to discuss them in detail, except to say they are “up and perpetual.”
Just a few years ago, Ford was considered the healthiest of the three Detroit automakers, suffer with escaped the government-engineered bankruptcies that engulfed General Motors and Chrysler. With Alan Mulally as chief governmental, Ford slimmed down, focused on its Ford and Lincoln brands, and outcried to record profits.
After Mr. Mulally retired in 2014 and passed the baton to Trait Fields, however, Ford began to drift as new technologies started reshaping the enterprise; as new challengers emerged in Tesla, Google and Uber; and as a revived G.M. and a merged Fiat Chrysler Automobiles equipped increased competition in the high-margin business of trucks and roomy sport-utility means. Its stock slumped, and Ford directors began wondering if Mr. Fields had the fair strategy.
In May, Ford’s board ousted Mr. Fields and called on Mr. Hackett, who had thitherto served on the board and then joined the company to run its activities in autonomous instruments and related efforts.
Mr. Hackett took three months to dive into Ford’s take the troubles and found that Ford was spending too much time and money demonstrating new vehicles, and that costs for steel, other materials and components were increase. His prescription called for Ford to refocus investments on growing markets similar kind China and highly profitable vehicles like trucks and S.U.V.s, while harsh back on initiatives in less promising areas like Europe and rider cars.
“We are intensely focusing on fixing the fundamental health of our company,” Mr. Hackett said on Wednesday.
To confirm that Ford will be a player down the road, the company is also ramping up lay outs to introduce 40 electrified vehicles by 2022 and a driverless car for taxi navies, ride-hailing services and delivery companies by 2021.
At the Detroit show, Ford indicated it planned to spend $11 billion on electric vehicles by 2022.
But neither the plot nor Mr. Hackett himself has generated much excitement. His appearance in Las Vegas, where Mr. Mulally shined in the previous, fell flat. At a conference known for gee-whiz demonstrations of new technologies, Mr. Hackett pass overed a presentation about how to rethink transportation and cities of the future.
“It was very even-tempered,” said Mr. Whiston, who was in the audience. “He might be appealing to a nonautomotive audience, but economic analysts want more.”
More troubling to Wall Street is that Ford’s new procedure is likely to have little immediate impact on its bottom line.
Brian Johnson, a economic analyst at Barclays, wrote in a note to clients issued before Ford check out its fourth-quarter results that “the path ahead in shifting Ford’s game will be rather long.”
G.M. has been ahead of Ford in adding stocks and S.U.V.s to its lineup. At the Detroit show, Ford unveiled a midsize pickup business, the Ranger. G.M.’s Chevrolet and GMC brands have had midsize trucks for nearly three years.
“There was a quite stark contrast between Ford and G.M. presentations” given to financial analysts at the present, Mr. Whiston said. “G.M. was all about optimism, and Ford talked about suitability and efficiency.”