General Motors Q2 Profit Beats Expectations, Shares Surge

Shares of

jumped around 7 percent in pre-market trading after the company reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter. The company posted quarterly net income of $1.1 billion, or $0.67 per share, compared to $200 million, or $0.11 per share, in the year-earlier period. Excluding one-time charges, GM's earnings climbed to $1.29 per share from $0.58 per share. Its revenue slipped to $38.2 billion from $39.6 billion. However, analysts were expecting a profit of $1.08 per share on revenue of $40.62 billion. The average estimate among 31 Estimize users was for earnings of $1.09 per share and revenue of $40.05 billion. Earnings before interest and taxes adjusted climbed to $2.9 billion, while EBIT-adjusted margin widened to 7.5 percent. Operating profit at GM's North American operations doubled to $2.8 billion in the quarter. GM Europe reported EBIT-adjusted of $(0.0) billion, versus $(0.3) billion in the year-ago quarter. The company ended the quarter with total automotive liquidity of $34.9 billion. "The first two quarters of the year were strong as we fully capitalized on a robust North American industry and maintained our strength in China, despite the challenging conditions in that market," said GM CEO Mary Barra."We said our goal was to improve our earnings and margins this year, and we are on-plan. Consistent with that, we believe our results in the second half of the year will be even better than the first half, and we're confident we will meet our 2016 targets." GM shares gained 7.13 percent to $32.45 in pre-market trading.