GM 4Q earnings rise 16% as sales rebound at end of last year

In this April 23, 2018, file photo, the logo for General Motors appears above a trading post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. General Motors reports earnings Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

The GMC logo is displayed on the grill of a truck at a GMC dealership in Warminster, Pa., Tuesday, April 26, 2022. General Motors announced Friday, Jan. 20, 2023 it will spend more than $900 million to update four factories, with the bulk going to an engine plant in Flint, Mich., to build the next-generation V8 for big pickup trucks and SUVs. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)

DETROIT (AP) — Rising factory output led to strong U.S. sales at the end of last year, pushing General Motors' fourth-quarter net income up 16% over the same period a year ago.

The Detroit automaker made $1.99 billion from October through December, or an adjusted $2.12 per share, easily beating Wall Street per-share projections for $1.69, according to a poll of industry analysts by FactSet.

Quarterly revenue rose 28% to $43.1 billion, the company said, also beating estimates for $39.96 billion.

Shares of General Motors Co. jumped 4% before the opening bell Tuesday.

The performance came against the backdrop of a slowing economy due to interest rate increases from the Federal Reserve. The Fed's key rate, which affects many consumer and business loans, is now in a range of 4.25% to 4.5%, up from near zero last March.

GM, like other automakers, had trouble keeping its factories running at full output during 2022, but the industry and the company started showing signs of recovery late in the year.

GM sold 2.27 million vehicles for the year, up 2.5% over 2021. But fourth-quarter sales were up 41% to more than 623,000. By the end of the year the supply of vehicles on dealer lots had improved 14% to almost 411,000.

Experts don’t expect a return to normal vehicle supplies until sometime next year.

For the full year, GM posted net earnings to shareholders of $9.93 billion, down about 1% from 2021. That beat analysts’ estimates of $9.95 billion.

The company made $14.47 billion on an adjusted pretax basis, the high end of its guidance of $13.5 billion to $14.5 billion.

GM said it expects full year net income this year in a range of $8.7 billion to $10.1 billion. The forecast for adjusted pretax income is $10.5 billion to $12.5 billion.