TLDR
- General Motors (GM) stock fell 1.3% on Wednesday, a day after a 7% drop on third-quarter earnings.
- GM posted $3.70 adjusted profit per share on $50.02 billion in revenue and approved a $20 billion buyback.
- EV sales dropped 43% to 82,000 units through Q3, and GM wrote down more than $11 billion.
- GM plans hands-off, eyes-off highway driving on the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028.
- RBC, Barclays and Morgan Stanley cut targets, while Citi holds a $131 target.
General Motors (GM) stock fell 1.3% on Wednesday, while the S&P 500 rose 0.6%. Based on the 41.9% upside tied to the $108 average target, the stock trades near $76.
The drop followed a 7% slide on Tuesday after third-quarter results. Coming into Wednesday, the stock was down about 5% for the year.
The numbers themselves looked fine. GM posted $3.70 in adjusted profit per share on $50.02 billion in revenue, up 2.9% from last year.
BREAKING: General Motors is down almost 8% in the premarket as its full year profit outlook misses estimates.$GM beat Q3 estimates, but its full year earnings forecast of $12.75 to $13.75 per share is below what analysts expected.
Costs are the problem.
GM now expects about… pic.twitter.com/X90jVqn7wZ
— Bull Theory (@BullTheoryio) October 20, 2026
Revenue beat the $48.70 billion estimate. The company also approved a $20 billion buyback and kept its $0.18 quarterly dividend.
GM raised its 2026 adjusted automotive free cash flow outlook to $11.5 billion to $12.5 billion. The prior range was $9.5 billion to $11.5 billion.
New York Event and EV Plans
GM held an event in New York’s Meatpacking District on Wednesday. It showed off AI and self-driving features, but the market did not clap.
EV sales fell 43% to 82,000 units through the third quarter. GM wrote down more than $11 billion in EV spending and sold stakes in battery plants to LG Energy Solution and Samsung SDI.
The company has spent $35 billion on electric technology and a lineup of 12 models. Executives told Bloomberg a new mainstream electric SUV is planned within about three years.
GM says its new lithium manganese-rich batteries hold 33% more energy density than lithium iron phosphate packs. That delivers 20% more range per kilowatt-hour.
The next EV platform is expected to be 15% lighter, with 40% fewer drive unit parts. The new computing setup has 40 times the capacity and 30% less wiring.
Hands-off, eyes-off highway driving arrives on the Cadillac Escalade IQ in 2028. The 2027 Cadillac Lyriq will be first to get OnStar’s new AI assistant.
GM also says AI tools are cutting its nearly five-year development time in half. OnStar now has more than 12 million subscribers.
Analysts Weigh In
Several analysts trimmed targets after earnings. RBC’s Tom Narayan cut his to $98 from $102 and kept an Outperform rating.
Barclays’ Dan Levy lowered his to $105 from $110, and Morgan Stanley’s Andrew Percoco cut his to $95 from $101. Both kept Overweight ratings.
GM carries a Strong Buy consensus, with 15 Buys and one Hold over the past three months. The average target is $108.
Gordon Haskett’s Don Bilson called the valuation “outrageously low.” GM trades at five times expected earnings, down from near seven at the start of the year.
Citi’s Mike Ward keeps a Buy rating and a $131 target. He expects 8% to 10% North American auto margins and about $12 billion in annual free cash flow from 2026 to 2028.
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