After two straight years of quarterly losses General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) investors are finally rewarded with a profit.

While the company was unable to meet consensus estimates for the quarter it is still very encouraging to see the Detroit auto maker get back in the black. Total profit for the quarter came in at $950 million, but a hefty chunk of that came from a sale of 51% of its financial arm General Motors Acceptance Corp.

The sale of the financial arm added $770 million to the company's bottom line, putting GM's real profit at $180 million. At $180 million, earnings per share were 32 cents which was well below what analysts had been hoping to see. According to First Call, analysts had been expecting to see GM report $1.19 per share.

For the year GM also was able to improve upon its restated 2005 numbers. For the whole year 2006 the auto maker posted a net loss of $2 billion compared to $10.4 billion in losses during the 2005 year.

Even with the company posting its first quarterly profit in two years, expect to see the stock be under some pressure today for missing the estimates. In early morning pre-market trading, the stock has traded down 2.7% to $29.70.

Michael Fowlkes has worked as a stock trader for seven years and spent the last two years working as an analyst for the online investment advisory service Investor's Observer.

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