General Electric (NYSE:GE) Trading 2% Higher

Shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE) traded up 2% during trading on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $157.02 and last traded at $156.76. 6,187,178 shares were traded 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 analysts have commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of General Electric from $195.00 to $180.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target 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. Bank of America decreased their price target on shares of General Electric from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 8th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of General Electric in a research note on Saturday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of General Electric in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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 firm has a market capitalization of $171.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $158.53 and its 200 day simple moving average is $133.81.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.03 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The business 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 for the quarter was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.24 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that General Electric will post 3.78 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at $6,552,351.45. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at $8,153,863.08. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 13,601 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the senior vice president now owns 48,339 shares in the company, valued at $6,552,351.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in General Electric by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 88,444,222 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $11,288,136,000 after acquiring an additional 550,996 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its position in General Electric by 17.3% during the first 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 last quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in General Electric by 122,242.2% during the fourth quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 13,438,063 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $878,644,000 after acquiring an additional 13,427,079 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in General Electric by 4.0% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,588,433 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,170,551,000 after acquiring an additional 410,061 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in General Electric during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,193,159,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.