General Electric (NYSE:GE) Trading 1.9% Higher – Here’s Why

General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s stock price was up 1.9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $170.70 and last traded at $170.00. Approximately 966,212 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 84% from the average daily volume of 6,084,345 shares. The stock had previously closed at $166.79.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on GE shares. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price objective on General Electric from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Melius Research increased their price target on shares of General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.47.

General Electric Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $186.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.22, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.13. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $174.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $173.06.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The business had revenue of $9.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.02 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.65%. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is currently 19.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total value of $1,267,910.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,407,036.57. This trade represents a 34.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of General Electric stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.29, for a total transaction of $2,772,409.50. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 148,857 shares in the company, valued at $26,539,714.53. This represents a 9.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp grew its position in General Electric by 2.1% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 43,322,827 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $8,181,801,000 after purchasing an additional 898,296 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in General Electric by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,587,961 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,244,676,000 after acquiring an additional 156,272 shares during the period. Newport Trust Company LLC acquired a new position in General Electric in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,613,332,000. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in General Electric by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,405,731 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,336,257,000 after acquiring an additional 459,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in General Electric by 91.8% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,771,759 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,465,598,000 after acquiring an additional 3,719,894 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

General Electric Company Profile

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.