General Motors posts $3.2 billion 1st-quarter profit – exceeds expectations

GM announced $3.2 billion profit in the first three months of 2011, for its fifth-straight quarterly profit, including $1.5 billion from one-time charges that included the sale of GM’s stake in Delphi and preferred stock in former in-house lender Ally Financial.

But even excluding those items, profit was $2 billion before interest and taxes, beating analysts expectations of about $1.6 billion and up from $1.7 billion in the quarter a year ago. It was also GM's biggest profit since earning $1.8 billion in the second quarter of 2000.

GM sold 2.2 million vehicles globally, helping to lift revenue 15% to $36.2 billion, about $600 million more than analysts were expecting.

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veyron1001 - 5/5/2011 11:02:37 AM

+1 Boost

but still no revenue.

Joe_Limon - 5/5/2011 11:43:33 AM

-1 Boost

profit = revenue - costs

lol, are you trying to say that GM's distributors are paying them to take parts?

quizz - 5/5/2011 12:53:18 PM

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WRONG... Wall Street Journal: "GM Profits Up, But Result Disappoints Investors" http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859304576304761629230534.html

Don't you guys ever CHECK your headlines?? Sheeesh, clearly the investors expected MORE, so the profits did NOT exceed expectations

Joe_Limon - 5/5/2011 1:16:09 PM

-1 Boost

Don't you ever read past headlines? The article clearly states

"But even excluding those items, profit was $2 billion before interest and taxes, beating analysts expectations of about $1.6 billion"

quizz - 5/5/2011 1:23:16 PM

+1 Boost

I guess the the true nature of whether "expectations" were beaten is to look at the stock price: it dropped. Why?

"Despite the strong results and guidance, shares of GM were down more then 2% in morning trading. The stock had run-up sharply in recent days on hopes that GM would top forecasts by an even greater amount. Adam Jonas, analyst with Morgan Stanley, described the results out of North America as "disappointing," given the stronger than expected sales and pricing of vehicles in GM's home market."

I stand by my position that GM's results did not beat expectations.

Joe_Limon - 5/5/2011 2:14:19 PM

-2 Boost

Why? Using the stock market to gauge how a company is doing is like sticking your hand out of the window to see how fast your car is going. In GM's case, the stock could have been hyped to an unsustainable level upon entering the market. And in the case of your hand, you don't know what the windspeed over ground is.

ghosthunter - 5/5/2011 2:22:30 PM

+1 Boost

quizz
you don't play stock do you?
it is stock 101 called "buy the expectation" bascially the company stock price is highest when it "expects" to post profit, and then everyone sale it when the company DOES post profit because, hopefully, you already made money on their stock.

the price will normally bounce back to its previous levels few days after. this is entirely normal.

uaw_lax - 5/6/2011 3:49:57 AM

-1 Boost

you mean the other companies like GE?

LexSucks - 5/5/2011 2:19:32 PM

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Just make sure that not a dime of that profit goes to the workers. Shareholders are the only folks who should enjoy the profits.

AgentOrange - 5/5/2011 4:56:21 PM

0 Boost

$36.2 Billion revenue in one qtr (or $144.8 Billion for the mentally challenged and GM/Obama haters).
I'm sure that the Obama & GM haters would love to have seen the $144.8 Billion annual GM revenue going to Asia or Europe.
Think of all the direct and indirect jobs, taxes paid, etc and we (at least those with an IQs above room temperature (which GM haters obviously don't have) will have to agree that Obama did the right thing in saving GM.

veyron1001 - 5/5/2011 9:02:51 PM

+1 Boost

The majority of parts made for goverment motors oops I mean fleet motors oh sorry GM comes from overseas. GM should have gone out of business. As big as it is, the company does not "gives jobs" like you say it does. It does not even employ 1% of the able to work population. I would rather my money go to Europe or Japan over the US any day. They seem to know how to manage money a whole lot better.

Joe_Limon - 5/7/2011 12:38:09 PM

-1 Boost

"I would rather my money go to Europe or Japan over the US any day. They seem to know how to manage money a whole lot better. "

On that thought, shouldn't you give your money to bill gates? He seems to know how to manage money pretty good.