DETROIT -

Reporting fourth-quarter and full-year 2011 fiscal results on Thursday, General Motors had a banner year — increasing net income by $2.9 billion — and appears to be moving further past its bankruptcy-era struggles.

And based on what analysts have said in reaction, GM could climb even further, though it likely won’t come easy.

“With sales expected to surpass 13.3 million units in 2012, there will be plenty of opportunity for GM to continue to grow their business,” said Alec Gutierrez, senior market analyst of automotive insights at Kelley Blue Book. “However, with the industry more competitive than ever, they will need to continue to invest in new product innovations to remain competitive in today’s sales.”

Overall, the automaker pulled in $7.6 billion in net income attributable to common shareholders, compared to $4.7 billion a year ago. GM’s EBIT-adjusted improved from $7.0 billion to $8.3 billion. GM increased its revenue from $135.6 billion to $150.3 billion.

The automaker sold 9.0 million vehicles throughout the world, compared to 8.4 million sales the prior year.

Sharing some U.S. results for the full year, it moved 2.5 million vehicles during 2011, up from 2.2 million in 2010. Its U.S. market share was 19.2 percent, up 0.4 percentage points year-over-year.

“2011 was a year of solid recovery for GM. The company increased its’ sales by over 13 percent, added a half of point of market share, increased average transaction prices by over $1,100, all while lowering incentive spending by 5 percent,” said Jesse Toprak, vice president of market intelligence at TrueCar.

“The new crop of products from GM are helping to improve its’ brand image, resulting in a remarkable turnaround from what appeared to be a hopeless situation just three years ago,” he added.

Sharing more metrics for various areas of the world, EBIT-adjusted for GM North America came in at $7.2 billion for the year, up from $5.7 billion. Meanwhile, EBIT-adjusted for GM Europe was a $0.7 billion loss, compared to a $2 billion loss the year before.

The full-year sum for GM International Operations was $1.9 billion (down from $2.3 billion), with GM South America incurring a loss of $0.1 billion (down from a EBIT-adjusted of $0.8 billion a year ago).

As for cash flow and liquidity, GM’s total automotive liquidity at the end of the year was $37.5 billion, a $4 million year-over-year hike. GM increased automotive cash and marketable securities from $27.6 billion to $31.6 billion.

“In our first full year as a public company, we grew the top and bottom lines, advanced our global market share and made strategic investments in our brands around the world,” stated Dan Akerson, chairman and chief executive officer.

“We will build on these results as we bring more new cars, crossovers and trucks to market, and make GM a far more efficient global team. This includes reducing our break-even level in Europe and South America and driving higher revenues around the world,” he continued.

Fourth-Quarter Results

In the fourth quarter, GM’s posted net income attributable to common stockholders at $0.5 billion, even with the year-ago period. EBIT-adjusted climbed from $1.0 billion to $1.1 billion. The latter period includes $0.3 billion in restructuring charges.

Quarterly revenue climbed from $36.9 billion in to $38.0 billion.