General Motors misses Wall Street second-quarter earnings expectations, raises 2021 guidance
General Motors Co. Chevrolet Traverse sports utility vehicles (SUV) sit on the assembly line at the company’s Lansing Delta Township Assembly Plant in Lansing, Michigan, on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020.
Jeff Kowalsky | Bloomberg | Getty Images
General Motors missed Wall Street’s earnings expectations for the second-quarter despite a strong profit and raising its guidance for the year.
Here’s how GM did compared with what Wall Street expected based on average estimates compiled by Refinitiv.
- Adjusted EPS: $1.97 vs. $2.23 expected
- Revenue: $34.17 billion vs. $30.9 billion expected
Those results would be a record for the automaker in the second-quarter, topping its adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of $3.9 billion, or $1.86 a share, in 2016.
GM has been weathering challenges from a global shortage of semiconductor chips, which has caused factory shutdowns and is expected to shave billions off the industry’s earnings in 2021.
In June, GM projected better-than-expected results in the second quarter despite the industrywide impact of the shortage, which also is causing record vehicle pricing and profits.
GM on Tuesday confirmed its three North American full-size pickup truck assembly plants will be shut down next week due to the shortage.
The company said it expected its first-half EBIT-adjusted to range from $8.5 billion to $9.5 billion due to continued strong demand, better-than-expected results at GM Financial and improved near-term production. That was up from a forecast earlier this year of $5.5 billion.
CFO Paul Jacobson told investors in June that the company would update its full-year earnings forecast when it released its second-quarter results.
GM’s earnings forecast for the year was initially $10 billion to $11 billion, or $4.50 to $5.25 per share in adjusted pretax profits, and adjusted automotive free cash flow of $1 billion to $2 billion. The forecasts factored in the potential impact of the chip shortage, including a hit of $1.5 billion to $2 billion to earnings and decrease of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion to its free cash flow.
GM reported an adjusted pretax loss of $536 million in the second quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic causing rolling shutdowns of its factories. The company’s net income was a loss of $758 million during that quarter.
