General Electric (NYSE:GE) Shares Down 0.3%

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report)'s stock price traded down 0.3% on Thursday . The company traded as low as $167.94 and last traded at $168.42. 992,300 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 7,759,611 shares. The stock had previously closed at $168.86.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GE. Bank of America boosted their price target on General Electric from $165.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. Vertical Research started coverage on shares of General Electric in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $160.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Monday, April 29th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target on General Electric from $120.43 to $186.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $172.29.

General Electric Price Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $183.35 billion, a PE ratio of 54.92, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $162.76 and its 200 day simple moving average is $139.38.

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.25 billion. General Electric had a return on equity of 12.54% and a net margin of 5.05%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that General Electric will post 3.96 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 25th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. This is a positive change from General Electric's previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. General Electric's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 36.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other General Electric news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 56,284 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $8,153,863.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GE. Vanguard Group Inc. grew 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 purchasing an additional 550,996 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of General Electric by 4.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,588,433 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,170,551,000 after buying an additional 410,061 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of General Electric in the 4th quarter worth $1,193,159,000. Morgan Stanley grew its position in General Electric by 5.1% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 8,955,511 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $990,032,000 after acquiring an additional 434,736 shares during the period. Finally, DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main grew its position in General Electric by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 6,655,053 shares of the conglomerate's stock valued at $849,385,000 after acquiring an additional 426,794 shares during the period. 74.77% of the stock is 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.

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