DETROIT — If investors pay what General Motors hopes to get for its stock in a planned IPO, they'll have to buy the logic that the company's stock-market value should be similar to its closest competitor, Ford Motor Co. But Ford is making far more money these days and its U.S. market share is rising while GM's is falling and its new management team has little auto industry experience.

Ford's market value — calculated by multiplying its current share price by the total number of shares outstanding — is almost $50 billion. GM's total would be close to that if it is successful in selling a portion of its shares in an initial public offering later this month somewhere between $26 and $29 a share.

That price range was confirmed Monday by three people briefed on the sale who asked not to be named because a formal announcement has not yet been made.

But is GM really worth as much as Ford right now? Ford has been working on a rebuilding plan for five years.

It earned $1.7 billion in the third quarter, its sixth consecutive quarterly profit. It also managed through the financial downturn without taking taxpayer money, a big plus in the minds of American car buyers who increasingly are choosing its new cars and trucks.

General Motors Co. is still in the early stages of its restructuring, having emerged from bankruptcy protection just 16 months ago.

The company has had four CEOs in less than two years, and still must find a way to pay back more than $50 billion in taxpayer money it took to help survive the economic downturn. It has only posted profits in the last two quarters, totaling $2.2 billion.