General Electric (NYSE:GE) Shares Down 0.6% – Should You Sell?

General Electric (NYSE:GE) traded down 0.6% on Friday . The stock traded as low as $169.74 and last traded at $170.76. 784,863 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 6,095,026 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.87.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GE shares. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on General Electric from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $201.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. UBS Group increased their price objective on General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, General Electric has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $201.93.

General Electric Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The company has a market capitalization of $183.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.75, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $176.28 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $172.69.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $9.84 billion during 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 for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.82 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that General Electric will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other General Electric news, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total value of $1,267,910.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,407,036.57. This trade represents a 34.50 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of the company’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 sale, the senior vice president now owns 148,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,539,714.53. This trade represents a 9.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of General Electric by 2.1% in 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 period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of General Electric by 0.7% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,587,961 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $4,244,676,000 after buying an additional 156,272 shares during the period. Newport Trust Company LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Electric during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,613,332,000. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of General Electric by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,405,731 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,336,257,000 after buying an additional 459,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC raised its position in shares of General Electric by 91.8% during the 3rd quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,771,759 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,465,598,000 after buying an additional 3,719,894 shares during the period. 74.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.