Cost-Cutting Boosts Gm Profits

General Motors Corp. said Thursday it made more despite producing less, increasing earnings 18 percent in the second quarter while facing a drop in North American vehicle sales.

The No. 1 automaker attained increased earnings through cost-cutting that boosted profits for each vehicle. The company was the only one of the Big Three to report profits above last year’s second quarter.

“Our results stacked up very favorably vis-a-vis Ford and Chrysler, all operating under the same kind of conditions,” said GM financial chief Michael Losh.

The world’s largest automaker earned $2.27 billion, or $2.39 per share, in the April-June period, compared with $1.92 billion, or $2.23 a share, last year. Revenue for the quarter rose 9 percent to $44.1 billion from $40.4 billion in 1994.

Ford, the No. 2 automaker, said its second-quarter earnings fell 8 percent to $1.57 billion. And Chrysler, the nation’s third-biggest automaker, blamed a new minivan launch for its 86 percent earnings drop to $135 million.

In other earnings reports:

AT&T Corp. said its second-quarter profit climbed to $1.355 billion as stronger performance in its core long-distance business offset persistent losses in its computer business.

The 12 percent jump on comparable operations from a year ago was in line with the company’s own target and the expectations of Wall Street.

The profit amounted to 85 cents per share for the quarter ended June 30.

A year ago, AT&T earned $1.248 billion, or 80 cents per share, including one-time items that increased the profit from $1.195 billion.

Long-distance call volume rose 9 percent and revenue from the long-distance unit rose 5 percent.

Compaq Computer Corp. posted $246 million in second-quarter earnings Thursday, a 17 percent jump from a year ago, as stronger sales reflected a successful transition in its office product line.

The profit amounted to 90 cents per share, in line with Wall Street’s expectations. A year ago, it earned $210 million, or 78 cents per share, in the second quarter.

For the first six months of the year, Compaq earned $462 million, or $1.70 per share. That’s up 9 percent from $423 million, or $1.58, per share in the first half of 1994.

Northwest Airlines said Thursday its earnings for the second quarter jumped 47 percent, largely due to more passengers and higher fares.

Northwest earned $104.8 million, or 96 cents a share, for the quarter ended June 30, compared with $71.3 million, or 67 cents a share, a year ago.

“Significantly higher traffic coupled with focused promotional activity in a strong overall pricing environment drove much of the improvement in revenue,” said John H. Dasburg, president and chief executive officer.

Overall passenger traffic for the quarter was up 8.4 percent and the June load factor of 77 percent was the highest for that month in company history, Dasburg said.

“In addition to having more passengers on board, we benefited from several fare increases in the first half of 1995,” Dasburg said.