General Electric (NYSE:GE) Trading 0.3% Higher

General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s stock price shot up 0.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $155.38 and last traded at $154.10. 1,302,904 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 84% from the average session volume of 7,959,662 shares. The stock had previously closed at $153.70.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on GE shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased 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 report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on General Electric from $200.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on General Electric from $195.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. Barclays dropped their price objective on General Electric from $181.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their target price on General Electric from $210.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, General Electric currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $160.07.

General Electric Trading Up 1.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.18. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $158.14 and its 200-day moving average price is $133.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $170.93 billion, a PE ratio of 18.68, a PEG ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.29.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. General Electric had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.95%. The company had revenue of $19.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $17.27 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.24 EPS. General Electric’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts expect that General Electric will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.72%. This is a boost from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.38%.

Insider Transactions at General Electric

In other General Electric news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $135.55, for a total value of $1,843,615.55. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at $6,552,351.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,552,351.45. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 directly 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 Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of General Electric by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,444,222 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $11,288,136,000 after purchasing an additional 550,996 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 17.3% during the 1st 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 boosted its stake in shares of General Electric by 122,242.2% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,438,063 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $878,644,000 after acquiring an additional 13,427,079 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in shares of General Electric by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,588,433 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,170,551,000 after acquiring an additional 410,061 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in General Electric in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,193,159,000. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.