General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) shares are up 2.6% in premarket trading Tuesday after the company’s first-quarter results beat expectations on both the top and bottom lines.
The automaker posted revenue of $39.99 billion, up 11% from $36 billion last year and ahead of Street expectations of $38.96 billion, while adjusted earnings were $2.21 per share, compared to $2.06 a year earlier and expectations of $1.73.
Those figures were enough for GM to up its full-year adjusted earnings projections to between $11 billion and $13 billion, or $6.35-$7.35 per share. The company also increased automotive free cash flow expectations to $5.5 billion-$7.5 billion from $5 billion-$7 billion.
The results were bolstered by cost-cutting efforts such as an employee buyout program, which CFO Paul Jacobson said had a meaningful impact sooner than expected. The buyout is part of a plan from GM to cut $2 billion in structural costs by the end of 2024.
Meanwhile, GM also announced plans to invest over $3 billion in South Korea-based Samsung SDI to build a new battery cell manufacturing plant in the US. A location has not yet been decided, but the plan is for the plant to begin operations in 2026.
The plant is intended to produce nickel-rich prismatic and cylindrical cells, as opposed to the pouch cells in GM’s latest US electric vehicles.
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