General Electric (NYSE:GE) Trading Down 3.1% on Analyst Downgrade

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report) shares fell 3.1% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $175.00 to $165.00. Bank of America currently has a buy rating on the stock. General Electric traded as low as $150.93 and last traded at $151.72. 3,336,702 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 50% from the average session volume of 6,644,559 shares. The stock had previously closed at $156.52.

GE has been the topic of a number of other reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of General Electric from $200.00 to $165.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of General Electric in a research note on Friday. They set a "hold" rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $148.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $190.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $195.00 in a research note on Monday, March 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $157.67.

Insider Transactions at General Electric

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in General Electric by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,444,222 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $11,288,136,000 after acquiring an additional 550,996 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in General Electric by 17.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,490,012 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $4,639,533,000 after acquiring an additional 7,157,356 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in General Electric by 122,242.2% in the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,438,063 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $878,644,000 after acquiring an additional 13,427,079 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in General Electric by 4.0% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,588,433 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $1,170,551,000 after acquiring an additional 410,061 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank acquired a new stake in General Electric in the fourth quarter valued at $1,193,159,000. 74.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

General Electric Trading Down 1.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $156.12 and a 200 day simple moving average of $131.93. The company has a market cap of $168.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.29.

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.13. The business had revenue of $19.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.27 billion. General Electric had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.95%. The business's revenue was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.24 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 4.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This is an increase from General Electric's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. General Electric's payout ratio is 3.82%.

General Electric Company Profile

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.