General Motors (GM) shareholders just received what they wanted only a few weeks back when the automaker posted Q4 results — cash.

GM announced on Wednesday that it was upping its quarterly dividend by $0.03 to $0.15 a share, its first hike since 2023. In addition, the company announced a new $6 billion "share repurchase authorization," with $2 billion of that happening relatively soon in the form of a new accelerated share repurchase (ASR) program.

GM stock was up 3% in premarket trade.

"The GM team's execution continues to be strong across all three pillars of our capital allocation strategy, which are to reinvest in the business for profitable growth, maintain a strong investment grade balance sheet, and return capital to our shareholders," said Mary Barra, GM CEO and chair, in a statement.

When GM announced fourth quarter earnings last month, the stock traded lower as investors were disappointed the company did not return any cash to shareholders in the form of a new share purchase plan.

Last year GM issued a share buyback plan to repurchase up to $6 billion of its outstanding common shares. This was in addition to the $10 billion accelerated share repurchase (ASR) program it introduced at the end of last year, which coincided with a plan to increase its dividend by 33% beginning last January.

During the analyst call last month, GM CFO Paul Jacobson said management and the board would try to figure out a “prudent” way to expand those plans and have apparently done just that.

"We feel confident in our business plan, our balance sheet remains strong, and we will be agile if we need to respond to changes in public policy," Jacobson said in today's statement. "The repurchase authorization our board approved continues a commitment to our capital allocation policy."

GM added that 2025 capital spending will remain in the $10 billion to $11 billion range, inclusive of investments in GM's battery manufacturing joint ventures, with research and product development spending expected to be more than $8 billion.

Last month, GM projected 2025 profit coming in at a range of $13.7 billion to $15.7 billion, with a lower low bound but a higher upper bound than in 2024. Diluted and adjusted EPS are seen at $11 to $12 for the year, but the company did not model the effects of any Trump White House tariffs on imported vehicles or supplier parts.

Earlier this month at the Wolfe Research Auto conference, Barra said the company could mitigate up to 50% of the tariff effect by shifting vehicle and parts production elsewhere.