General Motors isn't a car company. It's a stock buyback machine. And Wall Street -- and investors -- is figuring it out.

Shares of the auto maker jumped almost 5% on Tuesday after it reported better-than-expected second-quarter numbers. Earnings per share came in at $3.57. Analysts were looking for $3.19, according to FactSet.

Those strong earnings came despite a moribund car market. To be sure, truck sales are solid, but there isn't much industry growth expected this year.

GM, however, keeps generating cash from a stable business and uses that cash to buy back stock.

As of July 10, the company had about 877 million shares outstanding -- down from 952 million a year ago. In the past 12 months, according to FactSet, it has spent more than $4 billion retiring stock -- about a third of total free cash flow generated over that span.

If GM used all its projected free cash flow for buybacks, it could retire 85% of its shares in a decade and effectively go private in 15 years. That implies share price growth of 20%. Our math assumes the company's total market value stays static.

Wall Street clearly sees value increasing. After earnings, the average analyst price target is up about $3 to $101. It's up from about $56 a share a year ago.

Investors have been a little slower to realize all that has / that is going on. The stock is down 2% this year, but was moving high on Wednesday -- up 5.4% at $83.82, roughly 18% below the current analyst target price. The S&P 500 was off 0.2%.

And Wall Street was helping, spreading around nice words and sprinkling in a higher price target.

TD Cowen analyst Itay Michaeli reiterated that the stock was a top pick. JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta said execution remained consistent.

Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Delaney reflected that dealer inventories are healthy, which is good for free cash flow generation potential down the road. (Dealers won't stop buying vehicles.)

And RBC analyst Tom Narayan raised his price target by $6, to $100, noting that GM has business opportunities in defense and autonomous driving.

All the love from Wall Street doesn't do much good if investors don't embrace it. And if they don't, GM will just keep buying more stock at a discount.

Write to Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com

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July 22, 2026 10:43 ET (14:43 GMT)

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