General Motors Co. said Thursday it made $1.33 billion in the second quarter, a sign it’s getting healthier as it prepares to sell stock to the public, The Associated Press reported.

It was the second straight quarterly profit for GM, which made $865 million in the first quarter.

CEO Ed Whitacre said last week that the company is eager to sell its shares in an initial public offering so it can end its dependence on the government and pay off $43.3 billion in bailout funds that were converted into a majority stake in the company.

Whitacre said the company plans to file paperwork in the near future for the IPO. But it’s unclear if the recent record of profits — $2.2 billion for the first half of 2010 — is enough to convince investors. GM lost $88 billion in the five years before it filed for bankruptcy protection last June.

GM’s second-quarter revenue totaled $33.2 billion, up 5.3 percent from the first quarter on growing sales in every region except Europe. In the U.S., GM saw strong sales of new and redesigned models like the Chevrolet Equinox wagon and Buick LaCrosse sedan.

GM said it earned $2.55 per share for the quarter. GM didn’t report second-quarter results last year because it spent part of the quarter in bankruptcy protection, but on Thursday, GM said it lost $12.9 billion in the second quarter of 2009, or $21.12 per share.

So far, GM’s results are a reversal of fortune from 2009, when it lost $4.3 billion from July 10, the day it exited bankruptcy court, through Dec. 31. Before the first-quarter results, GM hadn’t reported a profit since the second quarter of 2007.

GM said it ended the quarter with $32.5 billion in cash, down from $36 billion in the first quarter.

GM has been working to streamline operations and slash costs. It has shed four brands, changed leadership and last week announced its U.S. dealership network would number 4,500, about 25 percent smaller than it was in early 2009.

But it still faces hurdles. GM’s U.S. sales rose 14 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period in 2009, according to AutoData Corp. That was slightly less than the average industry increase of 17 percent. GM had the highest incentive spending of any major automaker at $3,691 per vehicle, almost $1,000 more than the industry average, according to Edmunds.com.

GM has also relied heavily on sales to rental-car, government and corporate fleets, which are less profitable than sales to individual customers. Retail sales — or sales to individuals — were up 11 percent industry wide through June, but up only 1 percent at GM.

GM is the last of the Detroit automakers to report second-quarter results. Ford Motor Co. made $2.6 billion, its fifth straight quarterly profit. Chrysler Group LLC, which got $15.5 billion in federal aid, narrowed its second-quarter loss to $172 million.

The U.S. government has owned a 61 percent stake in GM since the company left bankruptcy protection.

“We want the government out. Period,” Whitacre said during an auto conference in northern Michigan. “We don’t want to be known as Government Motors.”

GM has already paid $6.7 billion in government loans. Whitacre said GM wants to sell its stock all at once, rather than in batches, which would end the government’s ownership more quickly.

But the U.S. government and GM’s other stakeholders — a United Auto Workers health-care trust, which owns 17.5 percent of the company; the Canadian government, which owns 11.7 percent; and old bondholders, who own 9.8 percent — will ultimately decide how much of their equity to sell.

A GM IPO could be the largest such sale in U.S. history. It would have to bring in $70 billion to pay back all of GM’s stakeholders; some analysts expect the IPO will be worth at least than much. That would be more than Ford’s market value of roughly $44 billion, but less than the total value of Toyota’s shares of about $113 billion.

It would also dwarf a 2008 offering by Visa Inc. that netted nearly $18 billion.

GM is taking steps to boost its U.S. sales. In July the company said it would buy AmeriCredit Corp., an automotive financing company that serves the subprime market, for $3.5 billion. Though it was partners with Ally Financial Inc., formerly known as GMAC, GM previously lacked a so-called captive financing company, which can offer better rates to customers than outside financial sources.

GM also has several new vehicles in the pipeline. Its new Chevrolet Cruze, due out next month, is GM’s latest bid to make a desirable — and profitable — small car. Later this year, the company will begin selling the Chevrolet Volt, a $41,000 electric car with a small gas engine that extends its range.

A year after emerging from bankruptcy protection, Chrysler Group LLC said Monday that growing car and truck sales helped it narrow its second-quarter loss to $172 million, The Associated Press reported.

The U.S. and Canada are Chrysler’s primary markets, and both have seen increased demand for cars and trucks since a recession-related slump last year. Chrysler said revenues rose 8.2 percent to $10.5 billion compared with the first quarter, largely because of a 22 percent jump in sales.

Chrysler also reported a $183 million operating profit for first time since 2007, when it made $549 million while being taken over by private-equity group Cerberus Capital Management. The two quarters are tough to compare since Chrysler has been though a huge restructuring since then.

Chrysler has been run by Italian automaker Fiat SpA since leaving bankruptcy protection in June 2009.

Chrysler got a boost in the last few months with the release of the 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee, the first new vehicle Chrysler has released since Fiat took over. It plans more than a dozen new and refreshed products in the latter half of this year, including a revamped Chrysler 300 sedan and the U.S. debut of the Fiat 500 minicar.

Chrysler said its U.S. market share has been climbing steadily, from 8.1 percent at the end of last year to 9.4 percent at the end of the second quarter. Still, Chrysler’s share is down from 12.9 percent in the second quarter of 2007.

Chrysler said it expects to break even or post an operating profit this year and may raise that forecast when it reports third-quarter results. Chrysler reported an operating profit of $183 million in the second quarter, up 28 percent from the first quarter.

“Chrysler Group is on track to achieve its goals, yet an extraordinary amount of work still lies ahead,” Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said in a prepared statement.

But there is some weakness behind the numbers. According to data obtained by The Associated Press, a large percentage of Chrysler’s U.S. sales are going to low-profit rental-car companies and government and commercial fleets. Chrysler was the only major automaker to see a drop in retail sales — or non-fleet sales to individual buyers — in the first six months of the year. Retail sales rose 12 percent on average for the industry, but Chrysler’s dropped 21 percent.

Chrysler also has a stigma, in some buyers’ minds, because it accepted government bailout money. Marchionne has said Chrysler will repay $15.5 billion in aid from the U.S. and Canadian governments by 2014.

Chrysler’s crosstown rival General Motors Co. may end up paying off its own government loans much faster. GM, which took $50 billion in aid, reported a first-quarter profit of $865 million and is expected to post a second-quarter profit later this week. It plans to file paperwork soon for an initial public offering that would pay off much of its government debt. Marchionne hasn’t committed to any timing for a Chrysler public offering.

Chrysler’s other chief U.S. rival, Ford Motor Co., didn’t take government aid and recently reported a $2.6 billion quarterly profit, its fifth straight.

TOKYO — Despite a strong yen and the lingering fallout from recalls, Toyota said it had returned to a profit in the April-to-June quarter because of strong sales in emerging markets and aggressive cost-cutting, reported The New York Times.

Toyota’s net quarterly profit of 190.4 billion yen, or $2.2 billion, was a sharp reversal from a loss of 77.8 billion yen in the period a year ago. The automaker continued to recover from a slump brought on by a global recession and a series of recalls over faulty pedals and inquiries into its safety record.

The company, based in Toyota City, Japan, raised its net profit outlook for the year ending in March 2011 to 340 billion yen, from a 310 billion yen forecast earlier this year, citing a recovery in sales and progress in cost-cutting efforts.

Toyota said it now expected to sell 7.38 million vehicles in the fiscal year, up from the 7.29 million forecast earlier.

But Takahiko Ijichi, senior managing director, said the strengthening yen could cloud the outlook. The yen has risen steadily in recent months, hitting an eight-month high against the dollar in trading Wednesday as concerns over the American economy caused investors to sell the dollar.

A stronger home currency hurts Japanese exporters by making their products more expensive overseas and eroding the yen value of their foreign currency earnings. Toyota said it had based its full-year forecast on exchange rates of 90 yen to the dollar; however, the dollar was selling for around 85 yen in late trading in Tokyo on Wednesday.

Ijichi also warned that a faltering economic recovery in major markets, including the United States, and the expiration of government incentives could also hurt earnings. In Japan, sales are expected to lose steam later this year when the government winds down subsidies for fuel-efficient cars.

Still, revenue at Toyota surged to 4.87 trillion yen in the quarter, an increase of 27 percent from the same period the previous year. The automaker sold 1.82 million vehicles in the quarter — 419,000 more than a year earlier.

Ijichi said that a companywide cost-cutting drive, including efforts to reduce waste in Toyota’s supply chains, had added 50 billion yen to profit.

Toyota said business was brisk in Asia and the Middle East, though Toyota still lagged rivals in China, the biggest market in the world.

The effects of the economic downturn and the pedal recalls were still evident in the United States, although aggressive incentives were helping to lure buyers back. Toyota said Tuesday that its sales in the United States had fallen 3.2 percent in July from the period a year earlier.

“Asia is growing at an incredible rate,” Ijichi said. “We expect this to continue for the time being.”

The outlook for the United States was more uncertain, he said, given mixed signals on the strength of the recovery there. “There are signs that the auto market remains resilient,” he said. Automakers are on track to sell about 12 million vehicles this year in the United States, up from 10.4 million in 2009.

In the business year that ended in March, Toyota earned 209 billion yen. In the previous year, it lost 437 billion yen, its first annual loss in decades.

In the year that ended in March 2008, Toyota’s net profit hit 1.7 trillion yen.

SEOUL — South Korea’s Kia Motors Corp. Friday trounced estimates to post a 61 percent jump in second-quarter net profit, increased its forecast for global sales to over two million units for the year and announced it will launch new vehicles to spur demand, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Brisk sales of new models helped net profit rise to 557.8 billion won ($472 million) in the three months ended June 30, up from 347.1 billion won a year earlier. Net profit for the first six months of the year more than doubled to 956.3 billion won from 444.5 billion won during the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.

Kia’s net profit was expected to rise 36% from a year earlier to 472.7 billion won, according to the consensus forecast by analysts according to Seoul-based market research firm FnGuide.

The better-than-expected results sent Kia shares 2.3 percent higher to close at 30,900 won Friday, as investors overlooked the impact of a possible labor strike on the carmaker’s third-quarter earnings.

Kia, which together with Hyundai Motor Co. forms the world’s fifth-largest car maker by sales, had earlier set a target of 1.94 million units in global sales for 2010. It achieved 52 percent of its target by selling 1,004,000 units in the first half, leading to a revision of the target.

The company said it plans to strengthen its overseas marketing and sales with new products. “Kia will launch the K5 midsize sedan and the Sportage R sport utility vehicle in overseas markets late this year in order to excel the sales target,” the statement said.

Second-quarter operating profit climbed 28 percent from a year earlier to 423.7 billion won from 330.3 billion won, while sales were up 23 percent to 5.768 trillion won from 4.676 trillion won. First-half operating profit jumped 75% to 733.5 billion won and sales rose 30 percent to 10.629 trillion won.

However, analysts struck a cautious note, saying third-quarter operating profit may be similar to the year-earlier level of 330 billion won due to a possible strike during this year’s wage talks. Fewer working days due to summer holidays, which usually stretch from July through August, and the Korean Thanksgiving holidays in September will also likely damp profitability.

Last month, Kia’s union members voted for a possible strike if the company doesn’t accept their demands during the wage talks, in which they also want to discuss the issue of cutting the number of paid union executives. However, the company wants the issue of paid union executives to “be discussed separately from the wage deal.”

A union spokesman had told Dow Jones the union will decide on whether to go on strike or not, depending on the company’s attitude toward the “thorny” issue early next month, when they come back from summer holidays. Under revised labor laws, companies that have paid union executives are allowed to cut the number of those executives if they aren’t involved in manufacturing jobs.

“Still, improved utilization rates and addition of new cars to major markets will offer a strong catalyst to Kia in the fourth quarter,” Song Sang-hoon at Kyobo Securities said, forecasting a full-year operating profit of 1.409 trillion won and sales of 21.268 trillion won for this year.

FRANKFURT — Luxury-car makers boosted their outlooks for 2010 as demand recovered faster than expected after a woeful 2009, fueled by a growing number of affluent Chinese customers and a rebound in the United States, reported The Wall Street Journal.

Audi AG will report a “very significant” annual rise in second-quarter earnings, fueled by stronger car sales, and plans to offer more concrete full-year sales guidance on Friday, the German luxury car maker’s chief executive, Rupert Stadler, said late Monday.

“We will exceed the 1 million (car sales) significantly this year,” Mr. Stadler told reporters at the presentation of the new A7 coupe in Munich, reiterating previous statements. He declined to be more specific, but noted that “we might have something more to say on this on Friday.”

Audi’s German rival Mercedes-Benz on Tuesday said it expects to contribute €4 billion ($5.2 billion) in earnings before interest and tax, or Ebit, to parent Daimler AG’s full-year profit, which is expected to total at €6 billion this year.

The company had previously expected Ebit at the core Mercedes-Benz Cars unit to come in at the upper end of a €2.5 billion to €3 billion range in 2010 and group Ebit to exceed €4 billion. The Mercedes-Benz Cars unit comprises the Mercedes-Benz, Smart and Maybach nameplates.

“We have a very dynamic development of unit sales and revenue in all divisions,” Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement, adding that the Stuttgart-based firm expects “significant revenue growth” for the full year.

Zetsche confirmed previous statements saying the unit is expected to achieve a return on sales of 10% in the second half of 2012 and maintain this level in 2013.

In the second quarter, return on sales at the Mercedes-Benz Cars division was 9.8%, driven by strong demand for large models with healthy profit margins such as the updated Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the flagship S-Class sedan, particularly in China.

Daimler said the Mercedes-Benz brand reported its strongest second quarter ever, with car sales rising 24% on the year to 314,400 vehicles.

For the second half of the year, Mercedes-Benz expects “the positive trend of the first two quarters to continue, but no longer with the same dynamism.” Still, car sales at the Mercedes-Benz brand are expected to rise by a double-digit percentage rate in 2010.

Audi’s parent company Volkswagen AG is scheduled to release earnings on July 29, followed by more details on Audi’s performance on July 30. In the first half of the year, Audi’s car sales rose 19 percent from a year earlier to 554,950 vehicles.

Audi, the premium unit and key earnings contributor to Volkswagen, Europe’s largest auto maker by sales, is targeting a new sales record this year, driven by several updated or new models such as the small A1 and the A7 luxury coupe.

The A7 will go on sale in late September with prices starting at €51,700, and Germany, U.K., U.S. and China are expected to be the car’s main sales regions.

Stadler said Audi plans to sell about 200,000 A7 cars over the model’s entire life cycle of about seven years, adding that a hybrid version might be added at a later stage.

Audi’s sales volume reached a record high in 2008, when the Ingolstadt-based firm sold just over 1 million cars, but sales declined last year when demand for premium cars collapsed amid the economic downturn.

The luxury car sector, however, recovered faster than expected in the first six months of the year and automakers are upbeat that growth will continue in the second half of 2010.

BMW AG, the world’s largest luxury car maker by sales ahead of Mercedes-Benz and Audi, said earlier this month that pretax profit in 2010 is set to rise more sharply than previously anticipated because vehicle sales are expected to be better than hoped.

BMW now expects vehicle sales this year to rise by about 10 percent to more than 1.4 million cars, after previously forecasting a rise in the single-digit percentage range to more than 1.3 million cars. The company sold 1.29 million cars in 2009, down 10.4 percent on the year earlier.

BMW is scheduled to release second-quarter earnings on August 3.

FRANKFURT — Daimler AG said Tuesday it swung to a second-quarter net profit and lifted its target for full-year earnings before interest and tax, fueled by a speedy recovery in the luxury-car market, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The car and truck maker posted a net profit of €1.25 billion ($1.62 billion) compared with a year-earlier net loss of $1.02 billion, driven by soaring car sales at Mercedes-Benz as well as recovering truck markets. Revenue jumped 28% to €25.11 billion from €19.61 billion.

Daimler said it is now targeting full-year earnings before interest and taxes, or Ebit, of €6 billion compared with a previous target of more than €4 billion.

“We have a very dynamic development of unit sales and revenue in all divisions,” Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said in a statement, adding that the company expects “significant revenue growth” for the full year.

Daimler expects its core Mercedes-Benz division to account for €4 billion in Ebit in 2010 and the truck division for around €1 billion.

The Stuttgart-based company previously had expected Ebit at the Mercedes-Benz Cars unit to come in at the upper end of a €2.5 billion to €3 billion range.

Daimler is the world’s largest truck maker by sales and the world’s second-best-selling luxury car maker behind BMW AG. It was hard hit by last year’s slump in demand for premium cars and trucks, but staged a powerful earnings recovery in recent months and is moving closer to its profitability target at Mercedes-Benz Cars.

According to previous statements, the unit is expected to achieve a return on sales of 10 percent in the second half of 2012 and maintain this level in 2013.