General Motors beat Wall Street’s first-quarter profit estimates on Tuesday and lifted its full-year 2026 outlook after tariff exposure eased more than the company had expected. The automaker said adjusted earnings per share came in at $3.70, with adjusted EBIT of $4.253 billion, up 22% from a year earlier.
GM also reported first-quarter revenue of $43.62 billion, narrowly below the $43.68 billion estimate, but still strong enough to support a better forecast for the rest of the year. The company raised its 2026 adjusted EBIT guidance to $13.5 billion-$15.5 billion from $13 billion-$15 billion, and lifted its adjusted earnings per share target to $11.50-$13.50 from $11-$13. It held its adjusted automotive free cash flow guidance at $9 billion-$11 billion.
The biggest shift came from tariffs. GM said gross tariff costs for the year are now expected to land between $2.5 billion and $3.5 billion, down from a prior estimate of $3 billion-$4 billion, after an adjustment worth about $500 million tied to the Supreme Court decision that nullified some of President Trump’s tariffs. The company said that change improved margins in North America.
That relief matters because tariffs have been one of the clearest drags on the industry since they went into effect on April 1. GM said year-over-year comparisons were also distorted by an exceptionally strong first quarter last year, before those duties were in place, making the latest results harder to compare cleanly with 2025. The company is now treating the tariff hit as smaller than feared, and that shift is feeding directly into the stronger forecast it gave for 2026.
Even with the better earnings picture, GM’s sales story was mixed. U.S. sales fell 9.7% in the quarter to 626,429 vehicles, while EV sales dropped 19%. GM said it remained the No. 2 electric vehicle seller in the U.S. despite that decline. Chevrolet Silverado deliveries topped 128,000, and the truck accounted for more than 20% of GM’s total U.S. volume, underscoring how heavily the company still leans on its full-size pickup business.
Chief Executive Mary Barra said the company was seeing solid momentum in its core operations, pointing to U.S. and Canada sales leadership, a 42% share of the full-size pickup market, and the top spot in fleet and commercial deliveries. She also said GM was No. 2 in EVs with growing market share and No. 1 in Canada. The numbers suggest a company that is still selling from strength in its most profitable segments even as the electric-vehicle market cools and tariff pressures remain part of the backdrop.
GM previously said it plans to invest $10 billion-$12 billion annually in 2026 and 2027, including roughly $5 billion to expand U.S. manufacturing capacity, with a goal of lifting domestic production to 2 million units a year. For now, the company is betting that lower tariff costs, steady truck demand and a still-large U.S. business can keep gm stock supported while it pushes into the next phase of its investment plan.