General Motors Crushes Earnings Estimates

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

General Motors (NYS: GM) reported earnings on May 2. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
 For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), General Motors met expectations on revenues and crushed expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue dropped slightly. Non-GAAP earnings per share dropped. GAAP earnings per share dropped.


Margins dropped across the board.

Revenue details
 General Motors reported revenue of $36.88 billion. The 12 analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expected sales of $36.76 billion on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were the same as the prior-year quarter's.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
 EPS came in at $0.85. The 17 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.56 per share. Non-GAAP EPS of $0.85 for Q1 were 8.6% lower than the prior-year quarter's $0.93 per share. GAAP EPS of $0.58 for Q1 were 3.3% lower than the prior-year quarter's $0.60 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
 For the quarter, gross margin was 10.6%, 160 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 2.6%, 170 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 3.2%, 30 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. (Margins calculated in GAAP terms.)

Looking ahead
 Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $38.39 billion. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.73.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $155.06 billion. The average EPS estimate is $3.27.

Investor sentiment
 The stock has a two-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 829 members out of 1,041 rating the stock outperform, and 212 members rating it underperform. Among 196 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 158 give General Motors a green thumbs-up, and 38 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on General Motors is outperform, with an average price target of $35.24.

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The article General Motors Crushes Earnings Estimates originally appeared on Fool.com.

Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. The Motley Fool recommends General Motors. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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