General Motors (GM) earnings Q4 2021

General Motors said it expects to generate an operating profit this year of between $13 billion and $15 billion as a semiconductor shortage that marred vehicle production and sales for most of last year shows signs of improving.

The forecast, including adjusted earnings per share of between $6.25 and $7.25, is in line with many Wall Street analysts’ expectations as well as the company’s record $14.3 billion pretax adjusted earnings in 2021.

Net income this year is expected to be between $9.4 billion and $10.8 billion, also in line with its $10 billion profit in 2021, GM said.

“With an improving outlook for semiconductors in the U.S. and China, we expect our 2022 results will remain strong,” CEO Mary Barra wrote in a letter to shareholders, saying earnings will be “at or near record levels.”

Shares of the automaker jumped in after-hours trading by more than 2%. The stock closed Tuesday at $54.07 a share, up by 2.5%.

Barra said the company is not reinstating its dividend, which the automaker cut during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic in April 2020. She said the company plans to use the saved capital for accelerating, even increasing, its $35 billion in investments in electric and autonomous vehicles through 2025.

“As we move forward, we will consider all opportunities to return excess capital to shareholders, but we will not reinstate a dividend at this time,” Barra told analysts during a call Tuesday. “Our clear priority is to accelerate our EV plan and drive growth.”

The company plans to spend between about $9 billion and $10 billion a year in the medium term, including in 2022.

For the fourth quarter, GM’s unadjusted net income was $1.7 billion. Its pretax adjusted earnings were more than $2.8 billion. That compares with an adjusted pretax profit of $3.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2020. Revenue was $37.5 billion during that quarter.

GM’s North American operations contributed the most to the company’s profits in 2021. The market last year generated more than $10.3 billion, including $2.2 billion in the fourth quarter. The automaker’s financial arm followed the North American operations in generating more than $5 billion in 2021, including about $1.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

GM’s international operations earned only $827 million, including $275 million in the fourth quarter. The company last year spent about $1.2 billion on…