Today, GM reported its first quarter 2020 profit/earnings and as you might guess the company has been impacted by the current pandemic. How bad are things? How do these numbers compare to the other big three automakers? Let’s take a look.
Every three months, public companies like General Motors release earnings reports. They lay out how much money the company has earned, how much profit it made from those earnings and other details like earnings per share of stock.
Today, the company put out the results of it’s first quarter in 2020. That includes the months of January, February, March, and April. The last six weeks of the quarter being specifically affected by the pandemic lockdown.
Here’s the raw numbers.
First-quarter 2020 results:
- EPS-diluted of $0.17 and EPS-diluted-adjusted of $0.62
- EPS diluted-adjusted includes a $(0.28) impact from Lyft and PSA revaluations
- Income of $0.3 billion, and EBIT-adj. of $1.2 billion, which includes a $(1.4) billion COVID-19 impact
- Revenue of $32.7 billion
- GM North America EBIT-adjusted of $2.2 billion
- GM Financial EBT-adjusted of $0.2 billion
But how do those figures compare? This quote from The Detroit Free Press gives some context:
“The automaker reported a net profit of just $294 million, down 86.7% from $2.1 billion for the first quarter a year ago. Its earnings before interest and taxes was $1.2 billion, down 45.9% percent. Net revenue was down 6.2% to $32.7 billion, and China operations lost $167 million.”
and
“There are a few factors to blame for GM’s results. First, U.S. car demand has declined as most states have had stay-in-place orders in effect in an effort to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. In Michigan, car dealers could not even sell any cars for nearly three weeks. GM reported its U.S. customer deliveries in the quarter dropped 7% from the prior year period to 618,335 deliveries. “
But this article from NASDAQ shines a brighter light on the results
“Adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.62 per share, compared to $1.41 per share in the year-ago period. On average, 11 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to report earnings of $0.33 per share for the quarter. Analysts’ estimates typically exclude special items.
Revenue for the quarter was $32.7 billion, down 6.2 percent from $34.88 billion in the previous-year quarter. Analysts expected revenue of $31.12 billion for the quarter”
A big question is how long can GM continue to burn cash. CNBC reports on this aspect:
“The company burned through $903 million in cash during the quarter, a number that analysts and investors are closely tracking. Suryadevara declined to comment specifically to CNBC on its projected cash burn, but said the automaker had $33.4 billion in automotive liquidity to end the first quarter.”
Even with the down numbers, GM is positioned best out of it’s crosstown rivals according to The Detroit Free Press
“Earlier, FCA reported it lost $1.9 billion in the first quarter; Ford lost $2 billion.”