General Motors Company shares saw a rally on Tuesday and in early morning trading Wednesday after RBC Capital Markets upgraded the automaker’s stock to outperform.
RBC’s Joseph Spak set a new price target of $52 per share for GM, calling for it to rise 23 percent over the next 12 months as truck sales in North America decline less than what Wall Street expects.
Spark also revised his 2018 earnings per share estimate for GM to $6.30 per share, roughly 8 percent above consensus.
“We believe GM guides 2018 above consensus leading to positive earnings revisions,” wrote Spak. “The stock fits squarely into our preferred narrative for 2018 — increased confidence on downturn resiliency with a seat at the table on new mobility.”
GM shares saw a 1 percent gain in early trading on Tuesday, December 19th. Shares started the day at $42.63 per share, saw a 1 percent rally, and closed at $42.54. Shares opened at $42.71 on Wednesday, adding to a 21 percent gain so far in 2017.
Spak also noted that GM has potential to play in the budding robo-taxi industry thanks to its intense efforts in the autonomous vehicle space, including Cruise automation and Maven.
Comments
Well, Mr. Spak bumped his target price to $52 from $51.
Not a bad sign, but I don’t think that’s 23%. Maybe Royal Bank of Canada nailed it, though.
GM has outpaced the S&P 500 this year, +21% vs +20%. Maybe another 23% is in order. Time will tell, yes?
To clarify: it’s 23 percent from the stock’s value prior to Spak’s upgrade.