General Motors reported a strong finish to 2022 with its fourth quarter earnings rising nearly 15%, but it wasn’t enough to offset an overall decline in net income of a little less than 1 percent. However, its adjusted earnings set a new full-year record.
For Q4, the auto company reported revenue of $43.1 billion and net income of $2 billion, increases of 28.4% and 14.8% respectively. The company’s earnings per share during the quarter came in at $1.39, outperforming 2021’s number, which was $1.16 per share.
GM’s EBIT-adjusted earnings for the period were up 33.8% to $3.8 billion. However, the company’s net margin fell year-over-year from 5.2% to 4.6% during the quarter. This was due largely to higher expenses for income tax and automotive interest and a decline in automotive interest income.
For all of 2022, GM’s revenue was $156.7 billion while net income was $9.9 billion and EBIT-adjusted was a record $14.5 billion. Results were at the high end of the company’s revised EBIT-adjusted guidance range, Chair and CEO Mary Barra noted in a letter to shareholders.
The company exceeded analysts’ consensus estimates on its revenue figure, which was predicted to be $154.4 billion, but fell short on earnings per share, which was expected to be $7.19 a share, but came in at $6.13 per share. It did report EPS adjusted of $7.59 per share.
She also noted the company’s profit-sharing total with its hourly workers will be $500 million, or as much as $12,750 for each of its more than 42,300 eligible workers — also a new record. The company’s paid out $1.2 billion in profit sharing checks during the past three years.
“Their hard work helped us deliver industry-leading initial quality and meet strong customer demand,” Barra said in the letter.
Looking ahead
The company expects its core auto operations to perform at a consistently strong level in 2023, with full-year net income attributable to stockholders of $8.7 billion-$10.1 billion, EBIT-adjusted of $10.5 billion-$12.5 billion, and EPS-diluted and EPS-diluted-adjusted of $6-$7.
GM also expects strong cash flows from automotive operations this year, including net automotive cash provided by operating activities of $16 billion-$20 billion. The company also predicts its adjusted automotive free cash flow will come in between $5 billion-$7 billion.
“We expect that our momentum will help us deliver strong results once again in 2023,” Barra said. “In fact, we have all the essential ingredients to deliver EBIT-adjusted in a range of $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion thanks to our strong operating performance.”
She also predicted 2023 would be “breakout year” for the company’s Ultium battery technology. Noting by using the Ultium battery cells, the company’s accelerating the production of a slew of its current all-electric offerings, such as the Cadillac Lyriq, GMC Hummer EV and BrightDrop Zevo 600. She also noted the auto company’s pushing ahead on many of its highly publicized battery electrics like the Chevy Silverado EV, which is expected to begin production this summer, as well as the Chevy Blazer EV and Equinox EV.
“This keeps us on track to produce 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 through the first half of next year,” she said. Our EVs are transformational in so many ways. We’re earning new customers. Our investments are creating new jobs.
“We’re moving closer to a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion, and we believe our R&D, supply chain, manufacturing scale and distribution network will unlock the profitability of EVs.”
