General Motors zooms past coronavirus slowdown

General Motors Co. returned to profitability in the three months through September as business rebounded from a COVID-19-induced slowdown.

The Detroit-based automaker earned $4.05 billion, or an adjusted $2.83 per share, in the third quarter as revenue was little changed at $35.48 billion. Wall Street analysts surveyed by Refinitiv were expecting adjusted earnings of $1.38 per share on revenue of $35.43 billion.

GM posted a $758 million loss during the prior quarter as factories and dealerships were forced to close amid stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. Its year-ago profit was $2.35 billion, or $1.60 per share.

“We entered the pandemic in a strong position and acted decisively to keep our teams safe, conserve cash and preserve liquidity, all while keeping our critical product programs on track,” CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “Now we are well positioned to meet rising customer demand, accelerate our transformation and deliver our vision of a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”

U.S. sales improved sequentially each month of the quarter, driven by crossovers, full-size pickups and SUVs. Pickup truck sales were strong despite tight inventories.

Total worldwide vehicle sales slipped 5.26% from a year ago to 1.8 million amid declining sales in the U.S. and North America.

GM sales grew in the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa regions with China seeing 12% growth. The automaker expects at least 40% of its new models introduced in China within the next five years will be new energy vehicles.

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Shares were up 3.68% this year through Wednesday, underperforming the S&P 500's 6.58% gain.