It’s time to hand it to General Motors Co chief executive officer Mary Barra for keeping profits afloat.
Her company’s bottom line was supposed to shrink after US auto sales peaked in 2016, but surprise gains keep coming.
The latest was Barra’s forecast Friday that GM may earn about $1 a share more this year than analysts were expecting.
Cost cutting is the big reason, along with some key high-margin trucks coming to market.
While other carmakers say a combination of slumping sales, costlier clean-air rules and metals tariffs are hurting profits, Barra’s GM keeps finding ways to fatten the bottom line.
The automaker has beaten guidance and surprised investors for several years.
“Very few companies have made the radical change to its business the way GM did,” said longtime industry watcher Maryann Keller, an independent consultant in Stamford, Connecticut.
“This was not a typical round of cuts. There could be repercussions in the long run, but for now it’s working.”
GM has exited money-losing businesses and is emphasising more expensive models.
Selling its German unit Opel eliminated an operation that historically lost about a $1bn a year, and Barra stopped building vehicles in Russia and India.
At home, GM is ditching underperforming models and focusing on raising prices.
“We are unafraid to make bold decisions,” Barra said to investors Friday.
The 57-year-old CEO struck a more optimistic tone than rivals Volkswagen AG, BMW AG and Daimler AG.
The three have warned of challenges in the year ahead, including higher materials costs, tougher emissions standards and trade tensions.
Ford Motor Co and Tata Motors Ltd’s Jaguar Land Rover also are slashing thousands of jobs in Europe.
“The auto industry is one that not many people like right now, but GM is giving them a reason to like it,” said Kieran Ryan, a Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.
GM shares surged as much as 9.3% to $37.97 as of 2:45pm in New York.
The stock is among the biggest gainers in the S&P 500 on Friday and is bouncing back somewhat from last year’s 18% plunge.
This isn’t the first time GM performed beyond expectations:
GM surprised analysts in 2015, when it rode momentum in the US truck market and Cadillac grew in China, where luxury sales were taking off. In mid-2016, GM raised its guidance and posted a big second quarter after showing better profits in the US and a small profit in Europe, which had been a perennial money loser.
In the third quarter last year, GM shares jumped almost 9% when adjusted profit rose despite lower sales; investors had expected a decline.
The company saw stronger deliveries in China and squeezed out higher prices on its US trucks. GM plans to increase earnings by cutting thousands of salaried workers and closing five North American plants to save as much as $2.5bn this year, or about $1.80 a share.
That more than accounts for company’s surprise guidance for adjusted profit of $6.50 to $7 a share.
Analysts had expected $5.92 a share for this year.
GM forecasts industry sales in the US probably will be in the low 17mn vehicle range this year, compared with about 17.3mn in 2018.
Deliveries in China may be close to last year’s almost 27mn.
But even as its two major markets stall, GM expects to boost earnings by building up its supply of new pickups, which started selling in limited numbers in the third quarter.
About half the current inventory of its top-selling Chevrolet Silverado is the older model, Sandor Piszar, director of marketing for the brand, said in a briefing last week.
GM also has the new Cadillac XT4 and Chevy Blazer SUVs coming this year.
And the company does see some potential in China.
The market was down last year, but Cadillac was up 20% and should keep growing, Matt Tsien, president of GM China, said during an investor presentation.
While European automakers cut profit forecasts as they spend on new technology to meet future clean-air rules, GM has largely maintained earnings. The company has trimmed the weight of new models by as much as 400 pounds in the past several years with lightweight steel and aluminium, President Mark Reuss said. The Detroit-based company made the investment when sales were growing, so the impact on earnings is less now, he added.
Barra’s strategy of eliminating weak businesses does come with risk, Keller said.
GM is getting rid of some passenger cars in the US and exiting markets around the globe, which means the CEO must put up bigger profits with a smaller company.
It could be exposed if consumer preferences shift away from SUVs or the US or China markets slump.
“Will there be repercussions later? Maybe,” Keller said. “But in the near term, it works.” David Kudla, founder and CEO of Mainstay Capital Management, has invested in GM in the past but doesn’t own shares now.