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The
U.S. conglomerate, which is pulling back from financial
services, said its third-quarter industrial revenue grew 4
percent, excluding the impact of foreign currency swings and
acquisitions.
Orders plummeted 26 percent and revenue was short of some
analysts' estimates. GE backed its full-year profit target.
GE shares, up about 10 percent since activist investor Nelson
Peltz unveiled a $2.5 billion stake in the company earlier this
month, were little changed at $28 in premarket trading, after
earlier slipping nearly 2 percent.
"It’s a messy report," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment
officer at Solaris Asset Management, which owns GE shares.
Still, Ghriskey said GE's 9 percent rise in organic industrial
profit represented "great growth."
Fairfield, Connecticut-based GE has been in the midst of an
overhaul since April, when it said it would divest some $200
billion worth of its GE Capital financing assets to focus on
industrial manufacturing.
More recently, on Tuesday, the company agreed to sell a $30
billion commercial lending and leasing unit to Wells Fargo & Co
<WFC.N>.
As part of its retreat from financing, GE said on Friday it
expects to retire as much as 7 percent of its outstanding
floated shares by mid-November, as it completes the spinoff of
its former retail finance business, Synchrony Financial <SYF.N>.
The Federal Reserve earlier this week said Synchrony could
function as a standalone company.
GE reported third-quarter net earnings fell 29 percent from a
year earlier to $2.51 billion, or 25 cents per share.
Excluding special items, earnings of 29 cents a share exceeded
the average estimate of analysts by three cents, according to
Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue slipped 1.3 percent to $31.68 billion, with revenue in
its oil and gas segment dropping 16 percent amid weakness in
crude prices.
Revenue in its aviation segment increased 5 percent, while
revenue in its power and water division, its biggest segment,
grew 1 percent.
Sanford Bernstein analyst Steven Winoker said GE's industrial
revenue came in about $560 million below his estimate.
(Reporting by Lewis Krauskopf in New York; Editing by W Simon
and Bernadette Baum)
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