What to Expect From GM Earnings

GM seems to be well past its recall woes now, but the stock has never really recovered, despite being valued at only eight times expected 2015 earnings. The company’s window for claiming payments related to the ignition switch problem is now shut. CEO Mary Barra may have something to say about how much of the $600 million GM reserved for those payments has been approved so far and the total outstanding for the remaining claims.

Other drivers for revenues and profits are sales in China, which could be soft due to currency exchange effects, and other foreign countries. Russian sales have tanked, not only for GM, but all automakers. GM’s Russian market share dropped from 9.3% in 2013 to 7.6% in 2014.

One thing helping GM is that its dividend now yields 3.7%, and that actually may launch the shares into favor as a defensive stock despite how cyclical the auto industry is. If the share price rises sharply, though, GM will have to boost its dividend again to keep the yield up.

The stock’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is just 7.78 and the price-to-book value is 1.33. Investors are not expecting much, apparently, because the P/E ratio for the trailing 12 months is nearly 22. The consensus price target on the stock is $40.13, which implies a potential upside of 21.2% at Monday’s closing price of $33.11.

Shares traded higher Tuesday afternoon, however, up more than 3% at $34.19 after a solid report on U.S. sales in January. The stock’s 52-week range is $28.82 to $38.15. GM’s market cap is just shy of $55 billion.

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