General Motors Stock Outlook

[Ming]

Note: This is from an investment site, not a place for opinions or baseless "doom & gloom"

General Motors: Sales and Stock Price Continue to Decline
August 07, 2008
Seeking Alpha

GM announced the suspension of its dividend on July 15th in order to preserve liquidity and increase available cash. As long as fewer Americans are taking a ride in a new General Motors car, the stock looks to continue its own ride downhill. Coming off 52 week highs of over $44/ share, General Motors traded under $10/ share on Monday and now sits at $10.25.

While month to month results may vary going forward, we would expect auto sales to remain in decline for the rest of this year and substantially all of 2009. For the time being, the automakers are at the mercy of the broader US economy. Automakers are desperately trying to lower their inventories of SUVs and gas-guzzling trucks as these vehicles look to be the hardest hit by soaring gasoline prices. Once again fuel economy is a key concern for American consumers when searching for a new car.

General Motors had earlier offered buyouts and early retirement to its workers and reported that approximately 19,000 workers had accepted the deal by the deadline of July 1st. Most of those employees have already left the payroll. With the new losses, General Motors stated that they may be offering a new round of buyouts for hourly workers in the coming months.

SOURCE

[Ming]

More (If anyone has more postive financial articles on GM, please post them):

SALES OUTLOOK, CASH BURN AGAINST GM
August 4, 2008
Barrons.com

It goes solidly into the ”belaboring the obvious” category … but General Motors (GM) has some issues. As outlined by Lehman Brothers, vehicle sales dropped from a weak June trend into an even-deadlier July total. Tighter credit, and the moves by manufacturers to close leasing opportunities in order to spare their vehicle-financing operations, exacerbated the already-punchless sales patterns. Lehman has reduced its vehicle sales forecasts for the year even further, bringing the industry total down to about 14 million units. The firm cut its target on GM, to $11 from $19.50, saying that it might need to find another $3 billion to $4 billion in fresh cash from asset sales. Buckingham Research, echoing some common refrains, said that the auto maker’s cash-burn rates have accelerated through the year, raising questions about its solvency. GM shares, having already factored in some of these concerns, are trading flat Monday at just over $10. Interestingly, some auto retailers - arguably subject to several of the same trends - have fared better Monday, responding affirmatively to some constructive comments out of Thomas Weisel Partners. Shares of Asbury Automotive (ABG), which - granted - traded at a low on Friday, have added 7%, while Group One (GPI) has improved 7%, as well.

SOURCE

Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day Highlights
8/6/2008

General Motors Corporation is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the U.S. and the world. Weak North American sales, falling production volumes, and rising raw material costs are increasing our concerns. Significant incentives to stimulate sales and keep inventories lean are eating into margins.

Furthermore, GM sales are hampered by poor resale values. The company is at a disadvantage compared to its competition owing to huge pension and health care costs. These issues compel us to rate the shares a Sell with a six-month target price of $7.00.

SOURCE

[buildacariwant]

no surprises here

[Bokl]

IF GM wants to survive they need to sell, caddy, saab and hummer. They have proven that they can not manage Lexury brands. They spend over 5 billion on caddy and all we get is CTS? Saab and hummer sell very few cars. That is because nobody wants them. Pontiac needs to change its name to holden because pontiac name is destroyed nobody wants it. Bring all holden product here and let holden guys from australia manage brand. Do not let them do anything with detroit. Same with saturn change name to opel. and let opel guy manage that brand fire all saturn people in detroit. Have china manage buick since they can do it well. FIre all guys from detroit that manage buick. Just let detroit manage chevy. That is it. This way you will get rid of 5 devisions with out paying money to dealers and you will get money from selling brands. This is only way gm can make money. If they continue to support brands like Saturn, Pontiac, Hummer, saab and caddy. GM will fail too. If gm did all of this gm would be a true global company that sells all of its brands and product all over the world and making money while doing that. People need to realize that age of American car industry is over.

[Orbit Orange]

People need to realize that age of American car industry is over.

[Maetrix66]

People need to realize that age of American car industry is over.

Then why, in your plan, would you let us dumb 'Murricans run Chevy?
I would think that the Chinese can do a much better job with that as well, I mean, look at how well they are running their country. They create an industrial sector that pumps out more contaminants than an enema facility, which in turn creates jobs in burgeoning fields like cloud seeding to try and clean it up!

PLEASE.

GM is facing a perfect storm of adversity right now, just as the ship was beginning it's turn. The tough choices that are (and will be) forced upon it will make it leaner and more streamlined when the country emerges from the recession. The only lingering doubt that I have is whether or not they will learn from their mistakes.

If the trials and tribulations of Chrysler have taught us anything, it's that companies as large as GM can take hundreds of hits before they dissolve. As stated elsewhere,maybe even above, GM has assets to sell off before they even need to consider bankruptcy.

Saab, Hummer, and Saturn could be sold, even if it only amounts to an Intellectual Property transfer. GMC can be shuttered (killing two birds with one stone). Adjustments are already being made to the product portfolio. They may take a couple of years to come to fruition, but let's be honest, is there going to be a mad rush on new vehicles in the next year to begin with?? GM may luck out, as most of their new product is set to debut at around the same time that the country is forecasted to emerge from the recession.

Just back away from the edge and realize this for what it is. News and financial markets making money by exascerating and embellishing already poor numbers.

[RB35SLT]

I would rather SEE Chevrolet (and other brands) focus more on cars while GMC can focus on trucks.

[zabolots]

The sad fact is that the big 2.8 may not have enough cash to weather this particular downturn. Auto sales were propped up to artificially high levels by cheap credit and using home equity as an ATM. Now that these two sources have completely dried up, I don't think auto sales will return to levels seen of the past several years for quite some time.

Hopefully the Cruze will be as big of an improvement over the Cobalt as the new Malibu was over the previous generation. In addition, getting the Volt out on schedule and at an affordable price (either MSRP or with gov't rebates) is very important for GM, if for nothing else other than bragging rights. A turbo (or two) on the 3.6DI would be nice for performance enthusiasts as well

[Maxxer442]

sell caddy? what?? They've improved by leaps and bounds lately!!

[Jedi]

Originally Posted by Maxxer442

sell caddy? what?? They've improved by leaps and bounds lately!!

AGREED! WTF!

[steinravnik]

Originally Posted by zabolots

The sad fact is that the big 2.8 may not have enough cash to weather this particular downturn. Auto sales were propped up to artificially high levels by cheap credit and using home equity as an ATM. Now that these two sources have completely dried up, I don't think auto sales will return to levels seen of the past several years for quite some time.

Hopefully the Cruze will be as big of an improvement over the Cobalt as the new Malibu was over the previous generation. In addition, getting the Volt out on schedule and at an affordable price (either MSRP or with gov't rebates) is very important for GM, if for nothing else other than bragging rights. A turbo (or two) on the 3.6DI would be nice for performance enthusiasts as well

Don't forget leasing. 20% of all car "sales" were leases last year. That propped up sales as well.

[steinravnik]

Originally Posted by Ming

Note: This is from an investment site, not a place for opinions or baseless "doom & gloom"

General Motors: Sales and Stock Price Continue to Decline
August 07, 2008
Seeking Alpha

GM announced the suspension of its dividend on July 15th in order to preserve liquidity and increase available cash. As long as fewer Americans are taking a ride in a new General Motors car, the stock looks to continue its own ride downhill. Coming off 52 week highs of over $44/ share, General Motors traded under $10/ share on Monday and now sits at $10.25.

While month to month results may vary going forward, we would expect auto sales to remain in decline for the rest of this year and substantially all of 2009. For the time being, the automakers are at the mercy of the broader US economy. Automakers are desperately trying to lower their inventories of SUVs and gas-guzzling trucks as these vehicles look to be the hardest hit by soaring gasoline prices. Once again fuel economy is a key concern for American consumers when searching for a new car.

General Motors had earlier offered buyouts and early retirement to its workers and reported that approximately 19,000 workers had accepted the deal by the deadline of July 1st. Most of those employees have already left the payroll. With the new losses, General Motors stated that they may be offering a new round of buyouts for hourly workers in the coming months.

SOURCE

Investors have been down on GM for some time. It's going to be hard to find anything positive right now from an investment standpoint.

[RB35SLT]

Originally Posted by Maxxer442

sell caddy? what?? They've improved by leaps and bounds lately!!

I have to agree.

[Kennyboy]

Originally Posted by Bokl

IF GM wants to survive they need to sell, caddy, saab and hummer. They have proven that they can not manage Lexury brands. They spend over 5 billion on caddy and all we get is CTS? Saab and hummer sell very few cars. That is because nobody wants them. Pontiac needs to change its name to holden because pontiac name is destroyed nobody wants it. Bring all holden product here and let holden guys from australia manage brand. Do not let them do anything with detroit. Same with saturn change name to opel. and let opel guy manage that brand fire all saturn people in detroit. Have china manage buick since they can do it well. FIre all guys from detroit that manage buick. Just let detroit manage chevy. That is it. This way you will get rid of 5 devisions with out paying money to dealers and you will get money from selling brands. This is only way gm can make money. If they continue to support brands like Saturn, Pontiac, Hummer, saab and caddy. GM will fail too. If gm did all of this gm would be a true global company that sells all of its brands and product all over the world and making money while doing that. People need to realize that age of American car industry is over.

I think you need to lay off the magical tonic there. Sell Cadillac? Weird if you asked me. Everybody is suffering. There are forces outside of GM's control like the weak housing market, economic recession, shift of consumer preferences, etc. You can't placate all of GM's fault on it's management. All things must come to an end, if GM's dominance of the auto industry end, then let it be. The Chinese and the Indians are coming to power, and with Americans shopping at Walmart, then power will last a long time.

[mbukukanyau]

Here is GM's Stock outlook


Its not modified at all.