Cars and Drivers
GM March Sales Tumble 6%, Inventory Remains Stubbornly High
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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) on Tuesday posted total April U.S. sales of 244,406 vehicles, a decrease of 5.8% compared with April 2016. Retail deliveries fell 4.4 percentage points in the month to 191,911 million units and fleet deliveries dipped 1.2 points to account for 21.5% of total monthly sales.
GM’s new vehicle sales for April were forecast at 258,000 by analysts at Kelley Blue Book (KBB). The analysts also estimated an average transaction price of $38,339, down 0.2% month over month and down 0.7% year over year. KBB does not include applied consumer incentives to its calculation.
The company said March’s average transaction price was $35,000, up more than $600 per vehicle compared to the first quarter of 2017. The company also said that April incentive spending “as a percentage of average transaction price (ATP) was lower than domestic and many Asian competitors …”
April sales of the company’s top-selling Silverado pickup fell by 19.7%% year over year to 40,154 units, and GMC Sierra sales tumbled 15.3% to 17,400 units.
Sales of the Colorado midsize pickup dropped 11% to 9,221 units and the comparable GMC Canyon saw a decline of 21.7% to 2,368 units.
Cadillac retail sales increased 9.5% in April, following a 1.5% decrease in March. Cadillac sales totaled 12,300 units in April.
Total Chevrolet deliveries in March decreased by 10.4% year over year to 164,367 units, with retail sales falling 7.5% to 124,535 units.
The company’s Buick brand saw a year-over-year sales jump of 17% in April, including an increase of 14.8% in retail sales. The driver here was the Buick Encore with a 27% year-over-year gain.
For the auto industry as a whole, GM’s forecast for the seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of sales is 17.0 million for April, unchanged from last month’s estimate.
GM reported 935,758 units in inventory at the end of April, up by more than 9,500 from the total at the end of March. That represents a 100-day supply, up from 981 at the end of March.
GM’s stock traded down about 3.5% Tuesday morning, at $33.05 in a 52-week range of $27.34 to $38.55. The 12-month consensus price target on the stock is $39.90.
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