​GM record earnings zoom past Wall Street estimates

DETROIT - General Motors' (GM) second-quarter profit more than doubled to a record $2.87 billion, even as the company cut sales to rental car companies and saw its sales fall in the U.S., its most lucrative market.

The profit was so strong that GM raised its full-year earnings per share guidance by 25 cents to $5.50 to $6.

The Detroit automaker earned $1.81 per share from April through June. Excluding special items, it made $1.86, shattering Wall Street forecasts. Analysts polled by FactSet expected $1.52 per share.

Revenue rose 11 percent to $42.4 billion.

GM's numbers were aided by a small profit in Europe, its first in five years. But the company predicted that wouldn't hold due to fallout from Great Britain's vote to exit from European Union.

In Thursday premarket trading, the automaker's shares spiked higher by 4.7 percent, rising $1.48 to $32.97.