Four times a year, US stock market participants monitor long-awaited corporate reports from the country's major companies. At this time, American giants publish quarterly financial statements. When the data forecasted by market analysts are at odds with the actual data, significant changes in the value of the main shares occur on leading US exchanges, which becomes a real challenge for businesses and investors.
The reporting season for the fourth quarter of 2021 began in the US in mid-January. Earlier, many US giants such as Electronic Arts, Exxon Mobil, United Parcel Service, Tesla, and others had already published their statements.
General Motors, an American auto giant, released its reports. Thus, following the results of the past year, the net profit attributable to stockholders of the issuer increased in annual terms by almost 1.6 times to $10.019 billion. Diluted earnings per security in 2021 amounted to $6.7 against $4.33 in 2020. Total revenue for the largest automobile corporation in the United States increased by 3.7% to $127.004 billion.
At the end of the fourth quarter, the net income of the US auto giant decreased by 1.6 times to $1.741 billion, while the diluted earnings per share last year was $1.16 against $1.93 in 2020. The company's revenues fell by 10.5% to $33.584 billion, compared with analysts' forecast of $35.2 billion.
General Motors sales in 2021 fell by 7.8% year over year. For example, last year it sold 12.9% fewer cars in the US and 3.1% fewer cars in the Asia-Pacific Region, Middle East, and Africa compared to 2020.
According to the preliminary scenarios of GM representatives, at the end of the coming year, the diluted earnings per share will be around $6.25-$7.25 and the company's net income will reach $9.4-$10.8 billion. In the premarket trading, the securities of the US automaker rose by 1%.
On Tuesday, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) also reported fourth-quarter results. The revenue figure published by the US integrated-circuit-electronics maker significantly exceeded analysts' forecasts.
The company reported revenues of $0.92 per security, and its total revenues amounted to $4.83 billion, while experts forecasted $0.7599 and $4.52 billion, respectively.
Following the release of the 2021 results, AMD stock jumped by 11.36% to $130.05 per share.
Since the beginning of 2022, Advanced Micro Devices securities have gained 3%, showing a better performance than the S&P 500 Index as a whole.
According to the results of the previous year, the largest California holding company and owner of Google - Alphabet Inc. - increased its net profit by 1.8 times to $76.033 billion compared to 2020. Diluted earnings per share were $112.2 versus $58.61 in 2020. The corporation's revenues rose by 1.4 times year over year to $257.637 billion.
According to the company's recent release, the rise of Alphabet Inc. stock in 2021 is associated with a significant increase in advertising spending and the high activity of users on the Internet.
At the end of the fourth quarter, Alphabet's net income rose by 35.5% to $20.642 billion on a yearly basis. Diluted earnings per share were $30.69 compared to $22.3 a year earlier. The holding's quarterly revenue jumped by 32% to $75.325 billion.
After the publication of the statements, Alphabet's securities rose by 7.4%.