Fiat Chrysler beats expectations for first-quarter earnings
FCA "reported a better-than-expected 11 percent rise in first-quarter adjusted operating profit, helped by improvements in all regions but Latin America, pushing shares up more than 3 percent," Reuters reported on Wednesday.
According to Reuters, "adjusted earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) for the January-March period rose to 1.54 billion euros ($1.68 billion), above a 1.4 billion euros consensus in a Thomson Reuters poll," and "[r]evenues were up 4 percent to 27.72 billion euros, slightly above forecasts."
In a statement, FCA called the first-quarter results a "record."
The North American market was FCA's best performer, by a wide margin. The carmaker's mix of pickup trucks and SUVs has benefitted from a US sales boom and relatively cheap gas. Most analysts expect the US sales pace to run at or near a 17-million level for 2017.
FCA lost a bit of market share in the US, slipping to 12.5% as it backs away from passenger-car production to focus on its more profitable Jeep brand.
FCA shares were trading up almost 4% in pre-market action on Wednesday, to $11.
