David Welch, Bloomberg

General Motors Co. plans to step up its program of buybacks by repurchasing $6 billion in shares and raising its dividend, rewarding investors by pushing more cash off its balance sheet.

The move, which the Detroit-based carmaker announced Wednesday, comes as the auto industry faces uncertainty about the impact of policy changes under President Donald Trump, including threatened tariffs and pledges to roll back support for electric vehicles.

“We feel confident in our business plan, our balance sheet remains strong and we will be agile if we need to respond to changes in public policy,” Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said in a statement.

GM said the buyback has no expiration date but that it aims to complete the first $2 billion in repurchases by the end of the second quarter. The company also plans to raise the quarterly dividend by 3 cents a share to 15 cents.

Its shares jumped 6.1% to $49.54 as of 9:35 a.m. in New York.

It’s the latest in a series of blockbuster share repurchases by the company. As recently as 2021, GM had 1.45 billion in shares outstanding, but currently has less than 1 billion in publicly traded stock.

The carmaker authorized $6 billion in share buybacks in June and has $300 million remaining on that program. That came on top of a previous $10 billion buyback program it completed in November 2023. All told, including the latest announcement, GM’s board has signed off on $37.7 billion in buybacks since 2015. That has helped buoy the value of GM’s shares, despite a series of recent setbacks in its business plans and strategy.

The automaker’s estimated dividend payments over the next year rose 18% to 58 cents per share from the previous estimate of 49 cents per share, according to Bloomberg Dividend Forecasts.

With an adjusted automotive free cash flow target of $11 billion to $13 billion for 2025, the company can afford the payouts while maintaining a steady capital spending plan. But it’s choosing not to plow all of its largesse into new investments or to keep it as a cushion from any negative fallout from the policy flux in Washington.

Trump has proposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada, where GM has a combined five assembly plants and also is exposed through a highly integrated North American auto parts supply chain. Trump also has directed his administration to consider eliminating policies that favor electric vehicles, which could put GM’s investments into plug-in vehicles at near-term risk.

By Luke Ramseth, Tribune News Service

Stellantis NV said Wednesday its 2024 net profit fell sharply to $5.8 billion (5.5 billion euro), a 70% drop compared to 2023’s record high.

The results reflect a tumultuous year for the maker of Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep and Ram and other brands that included poor sales across several key regions, cost cuts including layoffs, fights with unions and dealers, and the sudden departure of CEO Carlos Tavares in December.

Last year marked by far the lowest total profits that Stellantis has posted since the 2021 merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and French automaker Groupe PSA that created the current company, now the third-largest global carmaker in terms of total units.

And although there are indicators of a turnaround, Stellantis executives in an investor call acknowledged 2025 would not be a return to the double-digit profit margins of the prior few years, and significant performance improvements would not occur until the year’s second half.

John Elkann, Stellantis’ board chair, told investors Wednesday that 2024 was “a year we are not proud of,” a sentiment that was quickly echoed by Chief Financial Officer Doug Ostermann, who said it had been “a very rough year.”

The transatlantic company’s adjusted operating income fell 64% to $9 billion (8.6 billion euro), and its margin fell to 5.5% after being in the double digits and among the best in the industry over the prior three years.

Stellantis had told investors in September to expect significantly lower profit margins amid its rocky year — a warning that had caught some off guard, and quickly led to a leadership shakeup before Tavares’ eventual exit. The 5.5% figure aligned with the low end of that updated profit forecast.

Net revenues for 2024 decreased by 17%, to $164.7 billion (156.9 billion euro). And the company’s industrial free cash flows notably plummeted 147% to negative $6.3 billion (6 billion euro) — revealing significant cash burn that investors were also notified about last fall.

Stellantis shares were down close to 4% early Wednesday.

Yet there were at least some signs of a rebound late in the year. A major problem for the automaker in 2024, especially in the United States, had been bloated dealer inventory including older models that had prevented retailers from ordering more new product from the factory.

But Stellantis said by the end of December it had reduced those inventories year-over-year by 18% worldwide, and by 20% in the United States. U.S. dealer stock stood at 304,000 vehicles, below the company’s reduction target of 330,000 vehicles. And the automaker has also begun launching key new vehicles on its new flexible platforms, known as STLA Medium, STLA Large and Smart Car.

The automaker in its earnings statement provided 2025 guidance of positive net revenue growth, a return to positive cash flow, and adjusted profit margins in the “mid-single digits.”

“The future is brighter from where we were in 2024,” Elkann told investors, though he and Ostermann repeatedly acknowledged it would be a slower recovery process, and not to expect large correction in profits or market share this year.

In the carmaker’s profit-rich U.S. market, vehicle sales fell 15% overall in 2024, and 7% for the fourth quarter. But the automaker cut prices and offered deep incentives in the final weeks of the year, which helped pick up the sales pace and clear the glut of older cars off dealer lots.

Stellantis executives are optimistic that, beyond price reductions, several new vehicle offerings in 2025 can help lift sales. In the U.S., those new offerings will include a replacement SUV for the discontinued Jeep Cherokee, filling a key hole in that brand’s lineup; a gas version of the Dodge Charger muscle car; as well as refreshed and all-new Ram pickups that executives are optimistic will be popular with consumers.

But the rollouts and sales success of those vehicles and others could be complicated by sweeping tariffs promised by President Donald Trump and other potential changes to support for electric vehicles. Stellantis has multiple factories in both Canada and Mexico, countries that could face steep new tariffs under Trump as early as next week.

And as it navigates the policy uncertainty, Stellantis is still searching for its next CEO after Tavares left late last year. It formed a special committee to lead the effort led by Elkann. The company said Wednesday the search is “well underway” and pledged to have a replacement in place sometime in the first half of this year.

The carmaker proposed a dividend to shareholders of 71 cents (.68 euro) per share pending their approval.

Stellantis was the last of the Detroit Three automakers to report earnings. General Motors Co. in January posted net 2024 income of $6 billion, well down from 2023 thanks to costly changes to its China and robotaxi operations. And Ford Motor Co. earlier this month said its net income was up substantially last year, to $5.9 billion, beating expectations.

By Luke Ramseth, Tribune News Service

Employees of Stellantis NV represented by the United Auto Workers can expect to see profit sharing checks of $3,780, though some could be more and some less based on hours worked, the automaker said Wednesday.

There are about 38,800 workers eligible for the checks. The payout is a 73% decrease from last year’s $13,860, when about 38,000 employees were eligible.

The profit-sharing announcement is part of the automaker’s annual financial results released Wednesday, and is based on a 4.2% adjusted operating income margin last year in North America. That profit margin is down from 15.4% last year amid major challenges in the region that included a major decline in vehicle sales.

This year’s payouts will be paid on March 7, according to Stellantis.

The profit sharing was calculated based on Stellantis’ 2023 labor agreement with the UAW. Union-represented employees get $900 per 1% of profit margin in North America, based on how how many hours an employee worked last year. That means the final amount may differ depending on employee.

Tweaks to profit-sharing negotiated in the 2023 contract between Stellantis and the UAW included that workers who left the company after Dec. 31 but before profit-sharing checks are cut are still eligible to get the payout.

The union also negotiated a “performance sharing” payout for supplemental workers based on the profit-sharing formula, though far fewer supplemental workers are employed by Stellantis than when the contract was hashed out.

General Motors Co. in January announced record-sharing profit-sharing payouts of up to $14,500 to 48,000 eligible workers. Ford Motor Co., meanwhile, said it would pay bonuses of about $10,208 to its 57,000 eligible workers, just below the amount for 2023.