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GM claims record 4Q
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January 20, 1999: 9:54 a.m. ET
Automaker says strong sales, cost cutting made 4Q results best ever
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - General Motors Corp. says strong sales and a lot of cost-cutting made 1998's final three months the best quarter in the company's history.
The fourth-quarter diluted earnings per share were $3.25, soundly beating First Call's estimate of $2.65.
GM stock is higher in early Wednesday trading. It's up 1-7/8 to 89-7/8.
GM (GM) earned $2.36 a basic share and $2.33 a diluted share in the fourth quarter of 1997.
The company says net income totaling $1.8 billion was the best of any fourth-quarter period. That compares with net income of $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 1997. Excluding special items, GM's income in the fourth quarter of 1998 totaled $2.2 billion, or $3.28 per basic share.
GM says its North American operation was a key factor in the fourth-quarter results, with a record $1.6 billion in net income and a net profit margin of 5.7 percent. That beat the previous record high of $841 million in the first quarter of 1998 by more than $700 million.
GM chairman and chief executive officer John F. Smith Jr. says in a statement that the company had bounced back from the strike that hit GM last year.
"We've achieved full production of GM's new full-size pick-up trucks a month ahead of schedule," Smith says. "We announced, and made significant progress toward, the separation of Delphi Automotive Systems, we integrated the worldwide automotive operations into a single global unit, we restructured the U.S. sales and service field organization, we started up two new plants in key developing markets - Poland and China -- and we expanded our ownership in and partnerships with Isuzu and Suzuki -- all since August."
GM also says its strike-impacted 1998 net totaled $3 billion, or $4.26 per basic share, compared with $6.3 billion, or $8.45 per share, in 1997. 
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General Motors
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