GM Sees Record Profits… But Storms Are Approaching Fast

Have you ever had your wife ask you if you wanted the good news first or the bad news? You know, that moment when your heart skips a beat and you start mentally calculating how much your deductible is going to cost after another accident. 

Well for the good news... GM just dropped a profit bomb so massive it could’ve registered on the Richter scale (okay, that might be a little dramatic, but it was impressive). $12.1 billion in adjusted net income for 2024… a new company record, crushing last year’s $10.1 billion and 2022’s $11 billion (the previous record). Revenue hit $187 billion, comfortably beating Wall Street expectations. And the average price of a GM vehicle climbed to $50,000. (Because apparently, the new American dream is a loaded Escalade instead of a house.)

As far as the bad news… Trump’s back, and he’s swinging tariff threats around like a two year old with a golf club. Steel, aluminum, you name it… he’s ready to tax it. For GM, whose manufacturing network spans the U.S., Mexico, and Canada like Pete Davidson’s dating history, this is a potential disaster. Tariffs could drive up material costs to insane levels.

CFO Paul Jacobson did his best to keep the panic under wraps, saying, “We’ve got a pretty extensive playbook.” In other words: “We’re prepping for everything short of building cars out of plywood and duct tape.” The company’s already trying to move inventory across borders before any tariffs take effect.

As far as electric vehicles go… GM came close to hitting its 200,000-unit target for EV production in 2024, clocking in at 189,000. They’ve managed to achieve what they call "positive variable profitability," which is just another way of saying, “We’re still losing money, but we’re doing it less aggressively now.” Rivals like Tesla are still running laps around GM in both production scale and profitability.

One group that’s definitely not complaining is GM’s unionized workforce. UAW members are cashing in on $14,500 in profit-sharing payouts. But with labor costs rising, GM’s going to have to keep squeezing out profits to stay competitive.

GM’s 2025 earnings guidance of $11.2 billion to $12.5 billion is solid on paper, but there’s one problem… it doesn’t account for Trump’s potential tariff blitz. If that hammer comes down, GM’s carefully crafted plans could unravel (insert Trump voice: at levels we’ve never seen).

PS: Our "Insider Trade Tracker" just flagged two power moves that you should know about. Peter Anevski, CEO of Progyny, and Executive Chairman David Schlanger both made their first-ever open-market buys of the company’s stock. Anevski dropped $3.03 MILLION to grab 209,500 shares at $14.48 each, while Schlanger followed up with a $2.2 MILLION bet for 150,000 shares at $14.68 a pop.

Progyny’s stock has been flirting with recent lows, but with a booming market for fertility benefits and major clients like Google and Microsoft on their roster, these guys are clearly betting on brighter days. Call it a growth story in the making—or at least that’s what their wallets are saying.

Moves like this are exactly why our tracker exists: to show you where the smart money is going before everyone else catches on.

Oh, and FYI, we recently ranked #23 for free News Apps, ahead of Bloomberg and The Washington Post. 🎉 Curious to see what other power plays we’re tracking? Become a Stocks.News premium member today… or just keep enjoying our free content. No pressure. 😉

Stocks.News has positions in GM mentioned in article.