Five years Ago when General Motors (NYSE:GM) was in swimming across some troubled waters, very close to bankruptcy at one point, many of us might have as well written the company off. It was assumed by many that GM would never become a business story again. The company however is set to prove everyone wrong, with operations all over the world, it is moving forward. It may not be doing great in all of the places, but the general direction that GM has taken is encouraging to say the least.
In terms of cars sold, the company still trails behind Toyota but figures show that this gap is sales is becoming narrow. In the first 9 months of 2013, GM has sold 7.25 million vehicles versus the 7.41 million vehicles that the Japanese giant has sold in the same period.
GM is also pushing into new markets, it is pushing operations in China to sell Chevys and there is speculation that they will also move to explore opportunities in Indonesia with its Chinese partner SAIC Motor. It has also taken on solo charge of developing Opel cars for the 2018 model in Europe on its own as its partnership with PSA Peuguot Citroë:n of France is now very shaky.
The one speck of really bad news for the company is that most of General Motors India is facing charges of fraud involving emissions testing from 2005 to recently. There are a lot of recalls that have been made here and many firings have also happened.
Expectations are good despite that as analysts expect earnings of 94 cents per share for the third quarter which ended in September. The numbers for June were at 83 cents for every share and around $39.08 billion in shares. As many as sixteen out of nineteen analysts have rated the stock as buy or overweight. GM has consistently beaten estimates in the previous two quarters by at least 10% every time.
