Cruises, cash and electric cars top Wall Street’s priorities | Wilnesh News

DETROIT — A lot has changed since then General Motors Corporation’s One thing that didn’t happen during its last investor day two years ago was the automaker’s ability to beat Wall Street expectations — and it has done so every quarter since.

GM Chief Executive Mary Barra will spend Tuesday’s capital markets session trying to convince investors that she and her executive team can continue to do so despite slowing consumer demand and changing market conditions.

Wall Street analysts are eager to learn about plans for electric and hybrid vehicles, the company’s troubled Cruise self-driving car unit, its China restructuring and GM’s near-term plans for free cash flow, reducing costs and rewarding investors.

Many of them expect GM to focus more on its near-term goals and messaging than it has in recent investor days, including three years ago, when Barra and others set ambitious long-term financial goals to move the automaker Business revenue doubled.

“It’s clear that we’re entering a very different industry environment than we were three years ago,” Barclays analyst Dan Levy said in an investor note last week. “So the theme for GM three years ago was” Growth Cars” and we think today’s theme is “Practical Cars”.

The company is expected to tout its “flexibility” at the event to produce electric vehicles as well as traditional internal combustion engine vehicles, commonly known as ICEs. To highlight this effort, the event was held at GM’s vehicle assembly plant and Ultium EV battery plant in Tennessee. Spring Hill Assembly produces both types of vehicles.

Barra and other top executives have emphasized this dual strategy since lowering or withdrawing nearly all of the company’s EV goals as EV adoption has been slower than expected.

“We are taking advantage of every opportunity in ICE and electric vehicles and leveraging our core strengths,” Barra said on the company’s second-quarter investor call in July. “We are very nimble and opportunistic, but Equally important, we are very disciplined.”

Although this was GM’s first investor day since November 2022, some Wall Street analysts had lower expectations.

UBS analyst Joseph Spak said in a Sept. 23 investor note, “While we remain bullish on the stock, we do not see the event as a particularly attractive tactical risk/ Return.

But as Wolfe analyst Shreyas Pati noted, the “relatively low” expectations could provide room for “GM’s information to be more constructive than expected.”

GM’s stock price has been under pressure recently despite billions of dollars in buybacks. Although the stock is up about 28% this year, it is down 9% from the highs in the mid-$50s reached in July and is down about 8% from the start of last month.

The stock fell 5.4% in a single day last month, its second-largest single-day loss this year, as Wall Street analysts downgraded its price adjustment rating.

Morgan Stanley and Bernstein recently General Motors downgraded its rating and lowered its price target, citing challenging market conditions and lower upside potential, among other reasons.

They are also worried about the company’s restructuring in China. The change was announced with little to no expected information, except that the company said it was necessary after General Motors announced the change. Business in the country has been in freefall for years.