unlike rival ford motor  general motors has decided against reinstating its dividend despite record profitability general motors ticker gm reported fourthquarter earnings on tuesday and noted that it achieved record net income of 10 billion during 2021 the company projects net income of 94 billion to 108 billion for 2022 in line with last year gm’s move not to bring back its dividend which was eliminated in the second quarter of 2020 because of the pandemic may be weighing on its stock which was off 126 to 5282 wednesday last month ford f reinstated its dividend at 10 cents a quarter that gives it a yield of about 2 at its current stock price of 2039 the action played well with investors because it signaled that ford was comfortable investing heavily in electric vehicles and other new technologies while returning cash to holders in dividends gm is taking a different tack ceo mary barra addressed the issue on gm’s earnings call saying gm wants to invest for growth “the prospect of continued strong earnings and free cash flow even as we invest for growth naturally raises questions about resuming a common stock dividend as we move forward we will consider all opportunities to return excess capital to shareholders but we will not reinstate a dividend at this time our clear priority is to accelerate our ev plan and drive growth and we want to maintain maximum flexibility to invest as opportunities arise across our growth platforms” some wall street analysts praised the move citigroup’s itay michaeli wrote “we agree with gm’s decision to not reinstate the dividend given significant evav growth opportunities” the gm investment story is about its transition to electric vehicles and promising initiatives like cruise which is a leader in autonomous driving the dividend doesn’t appear to be a major issue for most gm holders but reinstating one would likely be viewed favorably by investors gm’s old quarterly dividend was 38 cents a share reinstating that would cost the company about 2 billion annually or 20 of projected net income this year and result in a yield of nearly 3 gm is expected to earn about 7 a share this year in line with 2021 gm’s adjusted fourthquarter earnings of 135 a share topped expectations by about 20 cents a share and the 2022 guidance was in line with expectations