General Electric (NYSE:GE) Stock Price Up 0.2% – Still a Buy?

General Electric (NYSE:GE) was up 0.2% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $166.63 and last traded at $166.09. Approximately 1,589,367 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 74% from the average daily volume of 6,112,062 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.80.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GE has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on General Electric from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, General Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $201.93.

General Electric Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $178.36 billion, a PE ratio of 28.96, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.17. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $178.41 and a 200 day moving average price of $172.38.

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

General Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 19.68%.

Insider Activity at General Electric

In other news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,289 shares in the company, valued at $2,407,036.57. This trade represents a 34.50 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of General Electric by 117.7% in the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 270 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of General Electric by 10.5% in the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 603,988 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $96,016,000 after purchasing an additional 57,372 shares during the last quarter. Marietta Investment Partners LLC purchased a new stake in General Electric in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,569,000. State Street Corp lifted its position in General Electric by 2.1% during 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 last quarter. Finally, Soltis Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in General Electric by 269.8% in the 3rd quarter. Soltis Investment Advisors LLC now owns 28,201 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $5,318,000 after buying an additional 20,575 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

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.