The Dearborn, Mich.-based Ford said Thursday evening that fourth-quarter earnings tumbled 89% from a year earlier. The company also fell more than $1 billion shy of the 2022 pretax operating profit guidance it had provided about three months earlier. Chief Executive

Jim Farley

said the company “left about $2 billion of profit on the table.”

“We have deeply entrenched issues in our industrial system that have proven tough to root out,” Mr. Farley said Thursday evening. “Candidly, the strength of our products and revenue has masked this dysfunctionality for a long time. It’s not an excuse, but it’s our reality. And we’re dealing with it urgently.”

Executives said Ford is still struggling to secure necessary parts, especially semiconductor chips, to rev up production and get cars into customers’ hands. Higher-than-expected supply-chain costs and other expenses tied to vehicle-quality problems also hurt results, executives said Thursday.

Some Wall Street analysts said the company will be able to manage through the short-term challenges while continuing to build out its burgeoning electric-vehicle business. Other analysts said the burden is now on the company to prove to investors that Ford can execute its plans and achieve financial targets. 

“We believe the company has a long way to go, but despite short-term hiccups, we anticipate management will make great strides on the plan,” analysts at

Bank of America Corp.

said Friday.

Analysts at

JPMorgan Chase

& Co. said the issues outlined by Ford executives aren’t restricted to the company, but that they appear to have hit Ford particularly hard. While many of the factors are beyond the company’s control, in some cases the company’s “execution in anticipation or response to these issues has also lagged,” the analysts said.

“The good news is consumers want Ford’s products and profitability is higher than historical levels while valuation is lower,” they said. 

Ford’s weaker-than-expected quarter comes after rival

General Motors Co.

said earlier this week that rebounding factory output, easing supply-chain constraints and a backlog of prospective buyers helped drive better-than-expected results. 

“Ford seems to find a way to dump a bucket of cold water on the auto stocks when the group begins to gain momentum,” Benchmark analyst

Michael Ward

said Friday in a note. 

On Thursday, Ford executives said that the company plans to cut costs this year and streamline efficiency as it looks to expand cost-savings beyond the $3 billion it had previously sought to achieve by the middle of the decade. Analysts at

Wells Fargo

& Co. said Ford’s 2023 cost-savings guidance could be too optimistic.

For 2023, Ford said it expects pretax operating profit to total $9 billion to $11 billion for the full year. 

Citigroup Inc.

analysts called the full-year guidance solid, but said it would be overshadowed by the disappointing fourth quarter as the “story now becomes about proving execution.”

Write to Will Feuer at Will.Feuer@wsj.com