General Electric (NYSE:GE) Stock Price Up 1.9% – Still a Buy?

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have recently commented on GE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group upped their target price on General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on General Electric from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on General Electric from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $201.47.

General Electric Stock Up 2.0 %

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

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

General Electric Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.65%. General Electric’s payout ratio is 19.68%.

Insider Activity at General Electric

In other news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 148,857 shares in the company, valued at $26,539,714.53. This trade represents a 9.46 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total value of $1,267,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,407,036.57. The trade was a 34.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in General Electric by 117.7% in the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 270 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its stake in General Electric by 10.5% during the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 603,988 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $96,016,000 after purchasing an additional 57,372 shares during the last quarter. Marietta Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of General Electric during the second quarter worth $1,569,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of General Electric by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 43,322,827 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $8,181,801,000 after buying an additional 898,296 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of General Electric by 269.8% in the third quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,201 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $5,318,000 after buying an additional 20,575 shares in the last quarter. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.