Russia, Not Recalls, Tamps Down GM Earnings

On a GAAP basis, GM’s EPS in the quarter were $0.81, which includes the impact of pretax charges of $300 million ($0.16 per share) primarily related to flood damage at GM’s technical center in Michigan and impairment charges for long-lived assets in Russia.

North American third-quarter pretax earnings fell from $2.55 billion a year ago to $1.87 billion this year. GM’s losses in Europe rose from $238 million a year ago to $387 million this year. International pretax earnings fell from $323 million a year ago to $259 million, and South American sales posted a loss of $32 million in the third quarter of 2014, compared to a profit of $284 million in the same period last year.

The company’s CEO said:

Strong global sales and growing margins in North America and China helped GM deliver very solid third quarter results. Despite industry challenges in Russia and South America, our earnings were on plan as we continue to execute our customer-focused strategy.

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The earnings announcement did not include guidance, but the consensus estimate for the fourth quarter calls for EPS of $0.86 on revenues of $41.1 billion. Full-year 2014 EPS is estimated at $2.66 on revenues of $158.12 billion.

GM managed to sneak past a consensus earnings estimate that had dropped by around 7% since the beginning of the third quarter. Retail sales in the United States rose from 697,000 units in the third quarter of 2013 to 752,000 units in the 2014 third quarter. European sales dropped from 344,000 a year ago to 284,000 this year, and international sales — which include China — saw quarterly sales rise from 973,000 to 1.065 million year-over-year.

Total U.S. market share is flat for the quarter at 17.3%. International share rose from 9.9% to 10.4%, while European and South American share fell to 6.5% and 16.4%, respectively, from year-ago market share totals of 7.8% and 17.7%. GM’s bet on Russia has hampered the company’s European recovery plans, and even improved sales of the company’s Opel/Vauxhall brands cannot make up for the debacle in Russia.

GM’s shares were trading up more than 2% in premarket activity Thursday morning, at $32.00 in a 52-week range of $28.82 to $41.85. The consensus target price for the shares was $39.80 before the report.

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