A Big Loss for General Motors, but Good News Too

As expected, General Motors (NYSE: GM) swung to a GAAP loss of about $3 billion in the third quarter, and its revenue fell sharply from a year ago, on a year-over-year drop in production and $5.4 billion in one-time charges related to the sale of its German subsidiary Adam Opel AG to French automaker Peugeot SA.

Beyond those issues, GM's underlying performance was fairly strong. All of its regional business units were profitable, and it outperformed Wall Street's expectations.

When adjusted to exclude the effects of one-time items and Opel's results, GM earned $1.32 per share in the third quarter, well ahead of the consensus $1.13 Wall Street estimate as reported by Thomson Reuters. Revenue of $33.6 billion also beat Wall Street's $32.67 billion estimate.

Source: Fool.com