GM February Sales Slip 1.5%

General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) posted total February U.S. sales of 227,825 vehicles, a decrease of 1.5% compared with February 2015. Retail deliveries rose 6.6%, fleet deliveries slipped six points and commercial sales rose 7% in February.

GM’s new vehicle sales for February were forecast at around 250,000 by analysts at Kelley Blue Book (KBB). GM’s average transaction price in February came in at $37,765, up 0.6% month over month and up 1.9% compared with February of last year, according to the KBB analysts.

GM reported that its average February transaction price rose to $34,200, up about $680 compared with January’s average. KBB does not include applied consumer incentives to its calculation. GM reported that February incentive spending equaled 12.4% of its average transaction price, higher than the industry average of 11.1%.

The best-selling vehicle in the month was the Chevy Silverado pickup, which saw a year-over-year sales decline of 5% to 43,136 units. Sales of the GMC Sierra pickups rose 0.3% in February, while the Colorado midsize pickup posted a sales increase of 12.7% to 7,394 units.

Cadillac retail sales rose 4.2%, following a 27.3% decrease in January. Cadillac sales totaled 11,840 units in February.
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Total Chevrolet deliveries in February fell 0.7% year over year to 158,644 units, although retail sales rose 13% to 121,747 units.

The company’s Buick brand saw a year-over-year total sales increase of 2.3% in February and a decrease of 1.9% in retail sales.

For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales is 17.7 million for February, up from with its January estimate of 17.5 million.

GM’s stock traded up about 1% late Tuesday morning, at $29.75 in a 52-week range of $24.62 to $38.99.