No. 1 automaker 3Q earnings well short of forecasts; cuts '04 earnings target.
October 14, 2004: 8:27 AM EDT
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - General Motors Corp. posted third quarter earnings Thursday that stopped well short of Wall Street expectations for the period and cut its earnings outlook for the full year.
The world's No. 1 automaker earned $440 million, or 78 cents a share, little changed from the $448 million, or 80 cents a share, it earned from continuing operations in the year-earlier period. Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call forecast EPS of 96 cents in the most recent period.
The automaker, which earlier Thursday announced plans to cut up to 12,000 jobs in Europe in order to stem losses there, said it now expects full-year earnings to be between $6 and $6.50 a share, excluding special items. That's down from its earlier guidance of about $7 a share. First Call's forecast had been for full-year earnings of $7.05 a share.
Shares of GM (Research), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, lost $1.28 to $40.02 in pre-market trading on Inet following the earnings report.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner called the results disappointing, saying that GM saw intense competition and downward pressure on auto prices in most of its markets.
"We've got to move more quickly in addressing these challenging, chronic structural-cost issues," he said in his statement.
The company's core automotive operations lost $130 million in the third quarter of 2004, compared with net income of $34 million in the prior-year period. That was led by its North American auto operations, its largest unit, which lost $22 million after earning operating profits of $128 million a year earlier.
While its auto operations saw improvements in its Latin America/Africa/Mid-East division, losses soared at its European operations and profits fell in its Asia-Pacific unit, which had been a bright spot for the company.
GM's finance arm, GM Acceptance Corp., saw a slight increase in operating profit in the period to $656 million, up from $630 million a year earlier.
Overall revenue increased to $44.9 billion from $43.5 billion a year earlier. Revenue from its North American auto unit slipped to $26.3 billion from $26.8 billion, even as the number of vehicles sold was essentially flat.
O Clubeinvest.com informa que nenhuma da informação
aqui facultada deverá ser entendida como conselho ou recomendação
de qualquer tipo de transacção ou investimento.
