General Motors (GM) is taking bold moves to regain Wall Street’s confidence after weeks of strikes and negotiating with the United Auto Workers (UAW) union. The legacy automaker is ensuring it kicks off the new year with a few investor-focused initiatives.
Coming straight from the negotiating table to the accounting table, GM CEO Mary Barra shared that the company is finalizing a budget for 2024, considering the contents of GM’s agreement with the UAW. Barra stated that the finalized budgies would “fully offset the incremental costs of our new labor agreements, and the long-term plan we are executing includes reducing the capital intensity of the business, developing products even more efficiently, and further reducing our fixed and variable costs.”
GM Share Buyback Plan
General Motors intended to initiate an accelerated $10 billion share buyback plan executed by Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Barclays, and Citibank. The total number of shares repurchased will be determined at the end of the program. The $10 billion share buyback will start in the fourth quarter.
The auto company will receive and retire $6.8 billion worth of common stock. GM predicts it will have $1.4 billion of capacity remaining under its share repurchase authorization that it will use for “additional, opportunistic share repurchases.”
Besides rolling out a massive share repurchase program, General Motors is also increasing its quarterly dividend in 2024. GM aims to increase quarterly dividend by 33% to 12% per share.
GM 2023 Guidance
General Motors is rolling with the punches as it closes the year by reinstating its 2023 guidance. The automaker initially pulled its guidance after publishing its Q3 2023 report, mentioning the UAW strike.
“Because of this uncertainty, we’ve chosen to withdraw our 2023 full-year guidance metrics, even though our strong underlying business fundamentals were pushing us towards the upper half of the range prior to any strike impact,” GM CFO Paul Jacobson
The Detroit automaker believes its 2023 capital spending will be between $11.0 and $11.5 billion, down from the $11 and $12 billion estimate before the strike. The company’s 2023 capital spending estimates are primarily driven by some new product delays and a pullback on some investments related to electric vehicles.
GM’s updated 2023 guidance also includes the following:
- Net income attributable to stockholders is $9.1 billion to $9.7 billion, compared to a previous outlook of $9.3 billion to $10.7 billion.
- Adjusted EBIT of $11.7 billion to $12.7 billion, compared to the previous outlook of $12.0 billion to $14.0 billion.
- Adjusted earnings per share are roughly $7.20 to $7.70, including the stock buyback, compared to the previous outlook of $7.15 to $8.15.
- EPS in the $6.52 to $7.02 range, including the stock buyback, compared to the previous outlook of $6.54 to $7.54
- Adjusted automotive free cash flow of $10.5 billion to $11.5 billion, compared to the previous outlook of $7.0 billion to $9.0 billion
- Net automotive cash provided by operating activities of $19.5 billion to $21.0 billion, compared to the previous outlook of $17.4 billion to $20.4 billion
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