Ford Motor Co. promoted one of the two presidents seen as leading candidates to become the next chief executive officer while the other leaves the automaker in the midst of a years-long slump.

Jim Farley, 57, will become chief operating officer as Joe Hinrichs, 53, retires after 19 years with the company. Ford announced the shake-up days after forecasting 2020 profit that missed estimates and reporting disappointing results for the end of last year.

Ford is in the midst of a US$11-billion restructuring led by Chief Executive Officer Jim Hackett, who took over a company struggling with declining profits and disappointing stock performance in 2017. The 64-year-old former head of an office-furniture company has struggled to engineer a turnaround by cutting costs, abandoning passenger cars and updating a dated product lineup that was losing market share.

“Ford has struggled with execution — potentially explaining this move,” Dan Levy, an analyst for Credit Suisse who cut his rating on the shares to the equivalent of a hold earlier Friday, said in a note to clients. “Farley’s promotion to COO positions him as a successor to for CEO role.”

Ford shares fell as much as 2.6 per cent to US$8.04 shortly after the open of regular trading. The stock dropped 9.5 per cent on Wednesday, its biggest plunge in nine years, after issuing gloomy projections for this year.

Hinrichs oversaw the botched launch of the Explorer sport utility vehicle, which dragged on earnings in the second half of last year. He was lauded years earlier for pulling off the high-wire act of transitioning the F-150 pickup, Ford’s most profitable product line, to all-aluminum bodies.

--With assistance from David Welch.