Automobile giant General Motors (GM) managed to turn a net profit of $247 million in the first quarter of the year, despite the impact of the coronavirus on its car factories and the slowing U.S. economy. The company’s profit in the quarter was still down 88% from $2.1 billion in the first quarter of 2019.

“We believe that we’re positioned well to manage through this because we’ve taken swift actions to preserve liquidity,” General Motors chief financial officer Dhivya Suryadevara said Wednesday in a conference call. The automobile giant has already withdrawn its financial guidance for the year.

General Motors had pretax earnings per share of 62 cents for the fiscal quarter, beating out Wall Street’s estimates of 30 cents earnings per share.

The coronavirus has hurt demand for automobiles, with U.S. customer deliveries in the quarter dropping 7% from the same time period last year. Lockdown measures to curb the spread of the virus have forced the company to effectively close down North American production plants since mid-March.

“With a tough first quarter over, GM now needs to focus on restarting plants, rebuilding inventory and selling vehicles. A stronger-than-expected close to April sales provides some optimism that May and beyond will be better for sales. GM needs to restock dealerships with pickup trucks,” Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst at Cox Automotive told the Detroit Free Press. “They have been the strongest segment throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and GM has the lowest supplies among its competitors. That’s where the sales and profits are.”

General Motors is eyeing May 18 as a date to restart most of its North American manufacturing operations “under extensive safety measures.”

Shares of General Motors have taken a sharp tumble amid the coronavirus crisis, from around $35 mid-February to roughly $17 in mid-March. As of Wednesday at 10:55 a.m. ET, the stock was trading at a price of $22.77.

RELATED STORIES
Coronavirus General motors