GM beats third-quarter forecasts and announces a $20 billion buyback, but its shares fall

General Motors beat Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations on Tuesday, 20 October, raised its cash-flow outlook and announced a new $20 billion multiyear share buyback, CNBC reported. Even so, its shares fell between about 5% and 7% in premarket trading, according to Reuters and CNBC.

The quarter

• Adjusted earnings per share: $3.70, versus $3.63 expected by analysts (LSEG).
• Revenue: $50.02 billion, versus $48.7 billion expected.
• Net income attributable to stockholders: $3.3 billion, about $2 billion more than a year earlier.
• Adjusted EBIT: $4.1 billion, of which North America contributed $3.6 billion.

Guidance and costs

GM narrowed its 2026 forecast to adjusted EBIT of $14.5-15.5 billion (previously $14-16 billion) and adjusted EPS of $12.75-13.75, and raised expected adjusted automotive free cash flow to $11.5-12.5 billion from $9.5-11.5 billion. The new buyback follows a $6 billion programme announced in January that has now been completed; GM gave no timeframe for the new one.

The carmaker said commodity inflation will cost around $2 billion this year, the top of its earlier range, including higher logistics and DRAM memory-chip costs, while gross tariff costs should land at the low end of its $2.5-3.5 billion range. CFO Paul Jacobson told CNBC the fourth quarter would be “down sequentially”. GM said charges from its pullback in electric vehicles, totalling $11.2 billion since the second half of last year, are now “substantially completed”.