General Motors reported lower-than-expected fourth-quarter profit this week as disappointing sales in Asia, North America, and South America sent shares down around 3 percent in premarket trading, according to Reuters.

GM Chief Financial Officer Chuck Stevens said that the low results occurred due to analysts who didn't account for the automaker's plans to close its Bochum, Germany plant this year, along with higher-than-expected tax rate.

"Our view is that the sell-side consensus didn't comprehend that restructuring," Stevens said this week, according to Reuters. "The final announcement associated with that wasn't done until early December. Due to that, we needed to book some of the restructuring costs, primarily related to the severance portion of that program."

Stevens said that despite improving Europe results, Venezuela and Argentina "dragged down results," according to Reuters.

Net income increased to $913 million, or 57 cents a share, compared to $892 million, or 54 cents a share, during the same time last year.

GM earned 67 cents a share, according to Reuters. Analysts expected 88 cents a share.

Revenue in the quarter rose 3 percent to $40.5 billion, below the $41.08 billion analysts had expected.

GM's North American operating profit reached $1.88 billion, an increase from $1.14 billion in 2013, which is short of the $2.04 billion expected by analysts, according to Reuters.

China had a profit of $208 million, which dropped from $676 million a year earlier.

Analysts predicted a South American profit of $151 million, but the automaker confirmed a profit of just $27 million, according to Reuters.

"The risk profile of South America has increased significantly over the last several weeks," Stevens said. "The devaluation of the peso in Argentina and fundamentally the economy is shut down in Venezuela, so that's going to be an area that we're going to have to manage through."

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