A rocky transition to electric vehicles in the United States could be a blessing in disguise for one of the country’s legacy automakers, according to Morgan Stanley. Analyst Adam Jonas named Ford the investment bank’s top pick among U.S. automakers in a note to clients Thursday. Jonas said scaling back EV spending plans can help Ford impress Wall Street. “The slower adoption of electric vehicles is POSITIVE for Ford. While progress will be measured over multiple quarters, we are confident that Ford can take action to mitigate the source of value destruction,” the note reads. Automakers such as Ford and General Motors have pledged to spend billions of dollars in recent years to expand their lineup of electric vehicles after Tesla’s success left their shares underperforming. But demand proved weaker than automakers expected, and Ford announced in January that it would reduce production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup. Jonas said reducing EV-related spending will help highlight Ford’s strengths in other areas and reassure worried shareholders. “In the auto industry, it’s the $10 billion that isn’t spent that can add more value than the $10 billion that is spent. While we don’t expect a stock repurchase campaign like the one undertaken by GM, we believe that Ford has significant margin to preserve capital and return excess liquidity to shareholders. [autonomous vehicles] and Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) can continue to collaborate with specialists and technology partners,” the note reads. Morgan Stanley has a $15 per share price target on Ford, which is about 28% above its closing price in stock on Wednesday. The company also has a bullish estimate of $21 per share for the stock. Meanwhile, Ford has a dividend yield of 5.1%, according to FactSet. Ford’s F 1D mountain shares rallied on Thursday afternoon after Morgan Stanley named the stock a top pick.it will report fourth-quarter results on Feb. 6. The stock was up nearly 3% in afternoon trading Thursday.