Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. Makes New $337,000 Investment in General Electric (NYSE:GE)

Whitaker Myers Wealth Managers LTD. bought a new position in shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 2,022 shares of the conglomerate’s stock, valued at approximately $337,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in General Electric by 117.7% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 270 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 146 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in General Electric by 10.5% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 603,988 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $96,016,000 after purchasing an additional 57,372 shares during the period. Johnson & White Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in General Electric in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $733,000. Marietta Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in General Electric in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,569,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 898,296 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their target price on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein boosted 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. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, General Electric presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.47.

Insider Transactions 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 shares were sold at an average price of $178.29, for a total value of $2,772,409.50. Following the transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total transaction of $1,267,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 13,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,407,036.57. The trade was a 34.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

General Electric Trading Up 1.7 %

GE opened at $182.83 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $197.87 billion, a PE ratio of 32.13, a P/E/G ratio of 1.40 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $174.33 and its 200 day moving average price is $174.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.85. General Electric has a 12-month low of $101.16 and a 12-month high of $194.80.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $9.84 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.02 billion. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that General Electric will post 4.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be given a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.61%. General Electric’s payout ratio is currently 19.68%.

About General Electric

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.