General Motors (GM) -) posted better-than-expected second quarter earnings Tuesday, while lifting its full-year profit outlook, thanks to an ongoing surge in domestic demand and deep operating cost reductions.
General Motors said adjusted earnings for the three months ending in June came in at $1.91 per share, up 67.5% from the same period last year and just ahead of the Street consensus of $1.85 per share. Group revenues were pegged at $44.75 billion, GM said, a 25.1% increase from last year that topped analysts' consensus of $42.65 billion tally.
General Motors, which has experienced solid demand for its cars and trucks this year, reported a 19% increase in overall June quarter sales earlier this month, shifting around 692,000 units, well ahead of the 531,662 sold by its smaller rival Ford Motor (F) -).
Looking into the second half of the year, General Motors said it sees adjusted net income in the region of $12 billion to $14 billion, a $2.5 billion lift from its earlier estimate, with earnings in the range of $7.15 to $8.15 per share, well ahead of its prior forecast of between $6.35 to $7.35 per share.
"Once again, we delivered strong earnings thanks to healthy customer demand for our vehicles, our intense focus on operational excellence, and great teamwork between GM, our dealers, our suppliers and our unions," CEO Mary Barra said in her regular letter to shareholders.
"In the U.S. market, we led the industry in retail and fleet deliveries, commercial deliveries and truck sales," she added. "We also earned the largest year-over-year increase in market share of any automaker with strong production and inventory discipline, and consistent pricing."
GM shares were marked 4.4% lower in early afternoon trading Tuesday immediately following the earnings release to change hands at $37.60 each.
GM also said it would launch a new generation of its electrified Chevy Bolt, one of the cheapest cars on the EV market, after unveiling plans earlier this year to stop producing the car it first launched in 2016.
“Our customers love today’s Bolt. It has been delivering record sales and some of the highest customer satisfaction and loyalty scores in the industry,” Barra said . “It’s also an important source of conquest sales for the company and for Chevrolet.”
“We will keep the momentum going by delivering a new Bolt…and we will execute it more quickly compared to an all-new program with significantly lower engineering expense and capital investment by updating the vehicle with Ultium and Ultifi technologies and by applying our ‘winning with simplicity’ discipline,” he added.
Ford will publish its second quarter earnings on Thursday, after the close of trading, with analysts looking for an adjusted bottom line of 55 cents per share on revenues of $40.38 billion.
