GM’s chief financial officer Paul Jacobson said on GM’s first quarter earnings call Tuesday that the refund the company is set to receive is small compared to the other tariffs that apply to it, including those imposed by the Trump administration that haven’t been invalidated by the nation’s top court. These include tariffs on imported steel and aluminum as well as cars and car parts. These tariffs rely on section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and were not affected by the Supreme Court ruling.
Jacobson added that the company didn’t know when it would receive the funds.
By including the expected half-billion refund in it’s first quarter results, GM’s first quarter adjusted EBIT, earnings before interest and taxes, saw an increase of nearly 22% year over year, to $4.25 billion. Its EBIT adjusted margin increased to 10.1%, up from the 8.6% margin excluding the tariff refund. The company’s adjusted earnings per share came in at $3.70, well above Wall Street expectations of $2.62 and up from the $2.78 it reported in the same quarter last year.
GM also increased its full year earnings per share guidance to between $11.50 and $13.50, up from the prior range of $11 to $13 thanks to the refund.
The expected tariff refund helped push the company’s stock up 6% in pre-market trading, before paring back gains. The stock was trading up 1% as of Tuesday afternoon.
