“A Breakout Year” Coming In 2023: GM Shares Rise 5% As Company Beats Expectations, Issues Strong Guidance

Shares of General Motors are surging higher by about 5% this morning after the Detroit automaker crushed expectations across the board, beating both Wall Street’s top and bottom line expectations to wrap up their full year 2022.

The company also issued strong guidance for the upcoming year. Shares are up about $1.70 and trading near $38 as a result.

Here are the numbers behind the full report, per Bloomberg: 

• Adjusted EPS $2.12, estimate $1.67

• Net sales and rev. $43.11 billion, estimate $40.51 billion

• Cruise net sales and revenue $25 million, estimate $62.6 million

• Automotive net sales and revenue $39.83 billion, estimate $38.1 billion

• GM Financial net sales and revenue $3.28 billion, estimate $3.35 billion

• North America adjusted Ebit $3.65 billion, estimate $3.31 billion

• International operations adjusted Ebit $272 million, estimate $286.9 million

• Cruise adjusted ebit loss $524 million

• GM financial adjusted EBT $775 million

• Adjusted automotive free cash flow $4.46 billion

• Adjusted Ebit $3.80 billion, estimate $3.46 billion

And guidance for the upcoming year, per Bloomberg:

• Sees adjusted EPS $6.00 to $7.00, estimate $5.70 (Bloomberg Consensus)

• Sees adjusted auto free cash flow $5.0 billion to $7.0 billion

• Sees adjusted Ebit $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion, estimate $10.35 billion

• Sees net income $8.7 billion to $10.1 billion, estimate $8.16 billion

In Mary Barra’s letter to shareholders, she wrote: “We expect that our momentum will help us deliver strong results once again in 2023. In fact, we have all the essential ingredients to deliver EBIT-adjusted in a range of $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion thanks to our strong operating performance.”

She called the coming year a “breakout” year for the company’s Ultium battery platform: “2023 will also be a breakout year for the Ultium Platform. By leveraging U.S.-made battery cells produced by our Ultium Cells joint venture and the scalability and flexibility of the Ultium Platform, we are accelerating production of the Cadillac LYRIQ, GMC HUMMER EV and BrightDrop Zevo 600, and we will launch exciting vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV, Blazer EV and Equinox EV. This keeps us on track to produce 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 through the first half of next year.”

Barra continued: “Our EVs are transformational in so many ways. We’re earning new customers. Our investments are creating new jobs. We’re moving closer to a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion, and we believe our R&D, supply chain, manufacturing scale and distribution network will unlock the profitability of EVs.”

CFO Paul Jacobson said on Tuesday morning: “We think the underlying business is going to be pretty consistent with what we saw last year, and I think that’s a slightly more bullish statement than where most of the market is.” 

He added that demand and pricing “remain strong” for the automaker. GM says it will also put into place a $2 billion cost cutting plan for the next two years and to expect “some” headcount attrition – but he says the company isn’t planning layoffs. 

Focus will also continue to be on margins at the company, as the Q4 results shows “signs of a margin squeeze”, according to CNBC: “GM’s net income slipped last year, down by less than 1% from the full year 2021 to $9.9 billion, with a profit margin that was off 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%. Its adjusted profit margin was 9.2%, down 2.1 percentage points compared with the previous year.”

Bloomberg also pointed out some of the company’s additional corporate initiatives:

• GM to Make A $650M Equity Investment in Lithium Americas
• GM, Lithium Americas to Develop Thacker Pass Mine in Nevada
• Thacker Pass Production Projected to Begin in 2H 2026
• GM: Investment Will Be Split Between Two Tranches
• GM: Escrow Release Is Expected to Occur No Later Than End 2023
• GM: We Are Gaining Considerable Market Share in Fleet Business
• GM Sees Capital Spend $11B-$13B for Year
• On track to open 4 battery cell plants targeting 160 GWh of capacity
• The company expects its core auto operations to perform at a consistently strong level in 2023, with full-year net income attributable to stockholders of $8.7 billion-$10.1 billion, EBIT-adjusted of $10.5 billion-$12.5 billion, and EPS-diluted and EPS-diluted-adjusted of $6.00-$7.00.