GM stock rides positive update to strong close | Official Website of Louis Velazquez, entrepreneur, finance guy and tech innovator

After hitting the doldrums during the summer months, General Motors’ stock has been on fire in the second half of the year.

Year to date, the stock is up nearly 45% after closing Tuesday’s session up 1.9% to $77.16. Over the past six months, shares are up more than 60%.

General Motors Q3 facts at-a-glance

U.S. Market Share: 17%
Electric vehicles sold: 67,000
E.V. market share: 16.5%
Dealer inventory: Down 16% year over year
EV inventory: Down 30% since June.

According to its third-quarter earnings report released Oct. 21, General Motors successfully rode the tariff wave to its most substantial U.S. market share since 2017.

The strong quarter led GM to raise its profit guidance to between $9.75 and $10.50 per share for the year, up from its previous view between $8.25 and $10 per share.

For the period, GM reported earnings of $2.80 per share on revenue of $48.59 billion. Analysts expected the company to report earnings of $2.30 per share on revenue of $45.04 billion.

This week, analysts at Morgan Stanley took note of the company’s favorable fortunes, upgrading the company and significantly raising its price target.

GM CEO Mary Barra has a $4 billion plan to combat tariffs.

Photo by Bloomberg on Getty Images

Morgan Stanley raises General Motors price target, upgrades stock

This, Morgan Stanley analysts upgraded General Motors’ stock to overweight from equal weight.

The firm also raised its price target to $90 per share, a significant upgrade from Morgan Stanley’s previous $54 price target. The upgraded outlook was attributed to execution gains, capital discipline improvements, and a favorable mix shift toward high-margin trucks and SUVs, according to a summary of the note.

GM also has strong operational execution as evidenced by its industry-leading U.S. inventory management, incentive discipline, and tariff mitigation efforts through supply chain realignment, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco.

Percoco lauded the $4 billion GM is investing in U.S. operations as it looks to avoid a larger tariff bill. The company plans to add up to 300,000 units of annual capacity for high-margin light-duty pickups, full-size SUVs, and crossovers.

He also sees the good times continuing for General Motors, thanks to President Donald Trump’s environmental policies.

GM says its EV production will adapt to “evolving regulatory landscape”

While GM CEO Mary Barra praised President Donald Trump for the recent tweaks to auto tariffs that will save the company a lot of money, she also acknowledged that changes to emission regulations will cost the company big time.

“Over the past several years, our portfolio and capacity plans have been shaped by steadily increasing regulatory stringency for fuel economy and emissions,” GM CEO Mary Barr said.

“To meet these requirements, we aggressively expanded our electric vehicle capacity,” Barra added. “However, with the evolving regulatory framework and the end of federal consumer incentives, it is now clear that near-term EV adoption will be lower than planned. That is why we are reassessing our EV capacity and manufacturing footprint.”

With changing attitudes in Washington, Barra now says GM expects to sell internal combustion engine vehicles for longer, but it is not abandoning its EV strategy altogether.

She told analysts on the earnings call, asking about EV, that GM will focus on “cost reduction, maintaining production discipline, and leveraging new battery technologies. We aim to improve EV profitability by reducing complexity and commonizing parts across our EV platform.”