General Electric (NYSE:GE) Trading 2% Higher

Shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE) shot up 2% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $157.02 and last traded at $156.76. 6,187,178 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 27% from the average session volume of 8,443,114 shares. The stock had previously closed at $153.70.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on GE. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $195.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. TD Cowen raised shares of General Electric from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $175.00 to $180.00 in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut 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 note on Tuesday, April 2nd. Barclays cut their target price on shares of General Electric from $181.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $160.07.

General Electric Price Performance

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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $158.53 and its 200 day moving average is $133.81. The stock has a market capitalization of $171.38 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.29.

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

General Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 25th. Investors of record on Monday, April 15th will be given a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. This is an increase from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 12th. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.38%.

Insider Activity at General Electric

In related news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.87, for a total transaction of $3,195,107.85. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,153,863.08. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.87, for a total transaction of $3,195,107.85. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,153,863.08. 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 13,601 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $135.55, for a total transaction of $1,843,615.55. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $6,552,351.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of General Electric by 122,242.2% in 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 during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of General Electric in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,193,159,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of General Electric by 17.3% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 48,490,012 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,639,533,000 after purchasing an additional 7,157,356 shares in the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Electric in the 4th quarter valued at about $520,488,000. Finally, Brown Advisory Inc. increased its holdings in shares of General Electric by 265.7% in the 3rd quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,008,425 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $332,581,000 after purchasing an additional 2,185,793 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

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.