GM quarterly profit falls but beats Wall Street estimates

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Co on Thursday reported a lower first-quarter net profit as it began the changeover to a redesigned family of high-margin pickup trucks that resulted in lower production, but came in above Wall Street expectations.

The company reported quarterly net income of $1.05 billion or $1.43 per share, a drop of nearly 60 percent from $2.61 billion or $1.75 per share a year earlier. Analysts had on average expected earnings per share of $1.24.

(Reporting by Nick Carey; editing by Jason Neely)