General Electric (NYSE:GE) Plans Dividend Increase - $0.28 Per Share

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, April 5th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a dividend of 0.28 per share by the conglomerate on Thursday, April 25th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. This is a boost from General Electric's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08.

General Electric has a dividend payout ratio of 5.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect General Electric to earn $5.90 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.32 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 5.4%.

General Electric Price Performance

GE traded up $8.91 on Friday, reaching $156.30. The company had a trading volume of 14,768,738 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,665,200. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $155.61 and a 200 day simple moving average of $131.40. The company has a market cap of $170.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.67, a P/E/G ratio of 1.95 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.18. General Electric has a 52-week low of $93.47 and a 52-week high of $180.36.

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $19.42 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.27 billion. General Electric had a net margin of 13.95% and a return on equity of 10.88%. The business's revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.24 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 4.59 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently weighed in on GE shares. Vertical Research started coverage on shares of General Electric in a report on Thursday. They issued a "buy" rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of General Electric from $135.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, December 11th. TheStreet upgraded shares of General Electric from a "c+" rating to a "b+" rating in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Barclays cut their price target on shares of General Electric from $181.00 to $175.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a "market perform" rating on shares of General Electric in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Electric currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $148.79.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Electric news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,552,351.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other General Electric news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,552,351.45. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.87, for a total value of $3,195,107.85. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 56,284 shares of the company's stock, valued at $8,153,863.08. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Sunbelt Securities Inc. bought a new position in General Electric in the 1st quarter worth approximately $98,000. Aspire Private Capital LLC boosted its stake in General Electric by 26.7% in the 1st quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC now owns 958 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $92,000 after purchasing an additional 202 shares during the period. Tyler Stone Wealth Management bought a new position in General Electric in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $60,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP boosted its stake in General Electric by 4,716.7% in the 1st quarter. Dark Forest Capital Management LP now owns 578 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $55,000 after purchasing an additional 566 shares during the period. Finally, Fred Alger Management LLC bought a new position in General Electric in the 1st quarter worth approximately $52,000. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About General Electric

General Electric Company operates as a high-tech industrial company in Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa. It offers gas and steam turbines, full balance of plant, upgrade, and service solutions, as well as data-leveraging software for power generation, industrial, government, and other customers.