GM earnings up to $2.6 billion
DETROIT – General Motors CEO Mary Barra said Friday the automaker’s first-quarter results show the company’s strategy of focusing on profitable areas and pulling back on others is making a difference.
The automaker’s profits soared 33 percent during the first three months of the year to $2.6 billion – a first-quarter record for the company since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009. That compares with $1.93 billion GM earned during the same period a year ago.
The profits are notable because industry sales in North America are beginning to fall after a seven-year period of sustained growth. GM’s earnings came one day after Ford said its first-quarter profits fell 35 percent to $1.6 billion. It was the eighth straight quarter that the company beat Wall Street expectations.
The bigger profits were mostly driven by strong performance in North America and China.
In Europe, a division that has dogged the automaker for years, GM lost $200 million.
Barra said GM’s profits will “immediately improve” after it completes the sale of its European division. GM agreed to sell its Opel and Vauxhaul brands to PSA Groupe for $2.2 billion in March and expects to take a $4.5 billion charge when it completes the sale later this year.
Athens Bank profits up nearly 30 percent
Athens Bancshares Corp., the parent company of Athens Federal Community Bank, said Friday its first quarter net income rose nearly 30 percent, largely from the $441,000 gain from the sale of a bank property during the quarter.
The Company’s net income for the three months ended March 31 was $1 million, or 57 cents per share. In the same period a year ago, the bank earned $779,000, or 44 cents per share.
Total assets for Athens Federal Community Bank increased $16 million in the first quarter to $455.9 million as of March 31.
Exxon doubles profits from higher oil prices
IRVING, Texas – Exxon more than doubled its profit in the first quarter as rising crude prices magnified the cost cuts made by the company as energy prices tumbled.
The Irving, Texas, company earned $4.01 billion, or 95 cents per share, for the three-month period, up from $1.81 billion, or 43 cents per share, a year earlier. It’s the first year-over-year profit gain for Exxon since the third quarter of 2014, when the price of oil was just beginning a plunge that took it below $30 a barrel.
Analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research expected 85 cents per share.
Electrolux profits rise as appliance sales grow
Electrolux, the world’s second-largest maker of household appliances, says profit for the three months ending March 31 rose to 1.08 billion kronor ($120 million), up 24 percent from the same period a year earlier.
The Swedish company says its sales in the first quarter increased slightly by 2.7 percent to 29 billion kronor ($3.29 billion) as it saw an improvement across all of its businesses.
Honda profits rise on lower recall costs
Honda Motor Co. reported Friday a 95.9 billion yen ($864 million) profit for January-March, a turnaround from the 93.4 billion yen loss it racked up a year earlier, as the Japanese automaker recovers from costs for a massive air-bag recall.
Quarterly sales rose 2.9 percent to 3.76 trillion yen ($33.9 billion) from 3.66 trillion yen. The performance exceeded forecasts by analysts at FactSet.
Tokyo-based Honda, which makes the Accord sedan, Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot, said an unfavorable exchange rate and research spending that chipped away at profits were offset by lower recall expenses and cost cuts.