	talking point general motors gm general motors corp staged an explosive rally on wall street after a share buyback program announced yesterday but analysts said gm s future remains clouded by stiff competition and erosion of market share gm shares rose to in active trading analysts agreed that investors liked the repurchase program but they differed sharply over the carmaker s long term prospects i m very positive on gm said jack kirnan of kidder peabody and co they re clearly committed to enhancing shareholder value however some analysts worry about how gm will pay for the buyback and whether new models will enable the carmaker to recapture lost market share after the market had closed yesterday gm said it would buy back pct of its common stock by the end of the announcement sent investors today scrambling for gm shares with more than mln shares changing hands by mid day the buyback plan caused several analysts bullish on the stock to reiterate buy recommendations this morning and at least one increased his ings estimates for gm based on a good performance expected from new car models but david healy of drexel burnham lambert inc said the repurchase program is not a positive the buyback doesn t really change the ings outlook and puts more stress on the balance sheet he said since gm will have to borrow money to pay for the stock purchases the stock should settle back down to around he added healy projects gm will  five dlrs a share in and dlrs in compared to ings of dlrs healy s numbers are near the low end of wall street estimates which range from five dlrs to dlrs in and from four dlrs to dlrs in like other analysts healy sees gm s share of the domestic car and truck market falling in on balance gm cars are not selling as well as their competitors he said in late february gm car sales fell pct from the year ago period while competitors ford motor co f and chrysler corp c both posted increases but gm said february sales showed improvement over january adding that it expects improvement in coming months overall gm s share of u s car and truck sales should fall to around or pct in from pct at the end of analysts said the numbers include imports kidder peabody s kirnan said cost reductions and product improvements this year should lead to positive cash flow by the fourth quarter which will help gm finance the buyback gm stock has been a real laggard and now it s rolling up its sleeves and getting serious i think there s a major ings surprise in the winds he said kirnan raised his ings estimates slightly today in part in reaction to the announced buyback and sees gm ing dlrs this year and dlrs in the company is more concerned than ever about improving their relative valuation with respect to ford and chrysler he said another positive for the stock is gm s dividend currently five dlrs a share annually which gives it a higher yield than its competitors kirnan said and gm will raise the cash dividend to cts a share next year he predicted but analyst michael lucky of shearson lehman brothers inc said u s car sales will weaken and gm s new products if successful will only slow but not halt the erosion of its market share i believe their new cars will be successful but that will only curtail losses in market share which will fall to around pct by lucky said philip fricke of goldman sachs and co falls in the middle of the bulls and bears while he is recommending gm stock he said results will not improve until i m not looking for improvement this year this is a transition year for gm he said fricke who estimates ings at dlrs and at dlrs said cost cutting and new car models will not affect results but the key thing isn t so much what they  this year it s the momentum beyond this year that s important reuter 
