General Electric (NYSE:GE) Stock Price Up 0.3% – What’s Next?

General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s stock price traded up 0.3% on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $173.58 and last traded at $172.85. 4,527,662 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 6% from the average session volume of 4,825,919 shares. The stock had previously closed at $172.31.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $201.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Melius Research raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on shares of General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.47.

General Electric Stock Performance

The business’s fifty day moving average is $174.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $173.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $185.78 billion, a PE ratio of 30.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.63 and a beta of 1.19.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.02. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The firm had revenue of $9.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.02 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. General Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 4.24 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. General Electric’s payout ratio is 19.68%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of General Electric stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 148,857 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,539,714.53. This trade represents a 9.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of General Electric stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,407,036.57. This trade represents a 34.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Quest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Electric by 28,412.5% in the second quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 2,281 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $363,000 after acquiring an additional 2,273 shares in the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Electric by 25.7% in the second quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 799,733 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $127,134,000 after acquiring an additional 163,710 shares in the last quarter. PFG Advisors grew its stake in General Electric by 2.7% in the second quarter. PFG Advisors now owns 7,500 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,192,000 after purchasing an additional 198 shares during the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in General Electric by 34.4% in the second quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 38,068 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $6,052,000 after purchasing an additional 9,745 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its stake in General Electric by 11.9% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 518,960 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $83,712,000 after purchasing an additional 55,315 shares during the last quarter. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by 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.