What to Watch When GE Reports Tuesday Morning

April 29, 2019 by Chris Lange

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is scheduled to release its most recent quarterly results before the markets open on Tuesday. The consensus estimates are $0.09 in earnings per share (EPS) and $27.05 billion in revenue. In the first quarter of last year, GE said it had $0.16 in EPS and $28.66 billion in revenue.

Recently, JPMorgan called for GE to drop massively, with more or less 50% downside. What matters here is that JPMorgan was among the first of the large Wall Street brokerage firm analysts to go negative on the stock, all the way back in May of 2016.

Back in March, CEO Larry Culp put guidance under expectations, but the reaction on the upside is being tied to GE’s view that its industrial free cash flow will be positive in 2020 and more positive views for 2021. GE sees its industrial segment organic revenues growing in the low- to mid-single-digit range.

Excluding Monday’s move, GE has outperformed the broad markets, with its stock up about 31.5% year to date. In the past 52 weeks though, the stock is actually down 29%.

A few analysts weighed in on GE ahead of the report:

  • JPMorgan has an Underweight rating and a $5 price target.
  • RBC has a Buy rating with a $12 price target.
  • Credit Suisse has a Neutral rating and an $11 price target.
  • Gordon Haskett has an Underperform rating with a $7 target.
  • Barclays has an Overweight rating with a $13 price target.

Shares of GE were last seen up less than 1% at $9.63, in a 52-week range of $6.40 to $14.99. The consensus price target is $12.61.