Citigroup Boosts General Electric (NYSE:GE) Price Target to $186.00

General Electric (NYSE:GE) had its price target upped by Citigroup from $120.43 to $186.00 in a research note released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the conglomerate’s stock.

A number of other equities analysts also recently issued reports on GE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price target on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $190.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a research note on Wednesday. TheStreet raised shares of General Electric from a c+ rating to a b+ rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised shares of General Electric from a hold rating to a buy rating and raised their target price for the company from $175.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $170.00.

General Electric Price Performance

GE stock opened at $162.35 on Thursday. General Electric has a 1 year low of $77.28 and a 1 year high of $163.65. The company has a market cap of $177.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.23, a PEG ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.29. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $160.72 and a 200 day moving average of $136.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.85.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.65 by $0.17. General Electric had a net margin of 5.05% and a return on equity of 12.54%. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.27 earnings per share. General Electric’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that General Electric will post 3.93 EPS for the current year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a boost from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.69%. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.72%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.87, for a total transaction of $3,195,107.85. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at $8,153,863.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.87, for a total transaction of $3,195,107.85. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at $8,153,863.08. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.55, for a total transaction of $1,843,615.55. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,552,351.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Halpern Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in General Electric by 968.4% in the fourth quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 203 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter worth $27,000. CGC Financial Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of General Electric by 90.2% during the 4th quarter. CGC Financial Services LLC now owns 232 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Capital Analysts LLC boosted its stake in shares of General Electric by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 243 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Horrell Capital Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Electric during the 1st quarter worth $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

About General Electric

General Electric Company, doing business as GE Aerospace, designs and produces commercial and defense aircraft engines, integrated engine components, electric power, and mechanical aircraft systems. It also offers aftermarket services to support its products. The company operates in the United States, Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa.