General Motors (GM) earnings Q3 2023

DETROIT — General Motors beat Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations on Tuesday, as it battles through ongoing labor strikes by the United Auto Workers union that’s costing the automaker roughly $200 million a week in lost vehicle production.

The labor strikes, which started Sept. 15, have cost the automaker roughly $800 million in pre-tax earnings due to lost vehicle production, including $200 million during the third quarter, according to CFO Paul Jacobson.

Due to the ongoing volatility caused by the strikes, GM is pulling its previously announced earnings guidance for the year that called for $12 billion to $14 billion in adjusted earnings and net income attributable to stockholders of between $9.3 billion and $10.7 billion.

Prior to the UAW strikes, Jacobson said the company was on track to achieve “toward the upper half” of its earnings forecast.

Here’s how the company performed in the third quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

• Adjusted earnings per share: $2.28 versus $1.88, estimated
• Revenue: $44.13 billion versus $43.68 billion, estimated

For the third quarter, GM reported net income attributable to stockholders of $3.06 billion, or $2.20 per share, down 7.3% from a year earlier when the company earned $3.31 billion, or $2.25 per share.

Revenue during the period increased 5.4% from $41.89 billion a year earlier, while adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) declined 16.9% from the third quarter of 2022 to $3.56 billion.

GM’s North American adjusted earnings were off 9.5% during the third quarter from a year earlier to $3.53 billion. Its international operations increased earnings by roughly 7% to $357 million, while its equity income from operations in China were down year over year by about 42% to $192 million.

GM said on Tuesday from January to September of this year it lost roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise, the company’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary. Those losses include $732 million during the third quarter, as the company geographically expands operations.