General Motors deserves more faith from shareholders than Ford

 Is Ford Motor's Chief Executive Jim Hackett doing a better job steering the company through the pandemic than General Motors' Mary Barra? That is the implication from looking at the two automakers' stock-price performances in recent months. Trouble is, shareholders are putting the wrong driver in pole position.

The past few months have not been kind to either of the two Motown manufacturers. Both had to close factories for weeks due to coronavirus lockdowns. Both also suspended their dividends and filled up with around $16 billion each of emergency cash, courtesy of bondholders and banks.

Earnings will be impacted. Ford is expected to unveil after U.S. stock markets close on Thursday a second-quarter loss of some $5 billion and a 58% revenue drop from the same period last year, according to Refinitiv data. GM, which releases results on Wednesday morning, should have held up better, with a $3 billion loss and a rough halving of the top line expected.

But the future tells a diverging story. Hackett moved faster than Barra shoring up Ford's cash, but Wall Street analysts expect Barra to keep GM in the black this year and grow the bottom line in 2021. Hackett, meanwhile, won't return Ford to profitability until next year - and even in 2022 its estimated pre-tax profit margin of 3.4% will be barely half what GM cranks out.

Ford's sales in China have improved of late, while GM's shrank a bit. And the response to the relaunch of Ford's Bronco SUV this month was so good that there's now an 18-month waiting list.

But GM is winning in more important growth areas, like developing autonomous and electric vehicles. Barra, for example, said in March it has developed a battery with a 400-mile range, and other executives have hinted they'll soon get costs low enough to be competitive with the internal-combustion engine.

Yet Ford's shares have given investors a less bumpy ride during the pandemic, and they currently trade at 12 times estimated 2022 earnings, double GM's pace. Shareholders should be showing Barra more faith.