GE Investor News

GE and Nuclear Energy in India

2010-08-31T21:34:00.000-07:00

GE Hitachi, Westinghouse Could Benefit From India's Shift on Nuclear Energy.
GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy, a partnership between General Electric and Hitachi, and Westinghouse Electric, a Toshiba unit are likely to benefit from the recently approved Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill in India.
On Monday, the Indian Parliament approved the compensation bill for nuclear accidents subsequent to tougher provisions on supplier liability. This move would end the two-year nuclear ban on India, whose atomic energy market is estimated between $150 billion and $175 billion.

It would enable U.S. companies to compete and invest almost $100 billion to $150 billion in India's nuclear power industry. Additionally, these companies would compete with European state- run rival companies as India boosts nuclear power generation to increase thirteen-fold by 2030 to spur economic growth.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Congress government had to rewrite the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Bill to accommodate all concerns and views of opposition parties as it seeks to ensure the passing of the bill before U.S president Barrack Obama visits India in November. The new law might lead to a significant increase in nuclear energy contribution to India's current power supply, which currently accounts for a meager 3%.

GE Creates Page on Digg

2010-08-30T05:30:00.000-07:00

GE, EA, Red Bull Are Digging In
Reasoning that an endless stream of content is required to engage fans, General Electric, Electronic Arts and Red Bull last week launched their own Digg pages, along with banner ads teasing Digg content.

The sites so far are built around common themes. GE's site, for its Ecomagination initiative, features links to green technology stories from Treehugger.com, Scientific American and Grist.org. Electronic Arts' site features stories about gaming from g4tv.com among others. Red Bull's Digg site recycles content from Redbullusa.com, which is mainly videos from action sporting events.
Each marketer will also run ads on Digg's network that tease such highlighted stories. Such content-enriched ads have been around for a while. In January, for instance, Intel ran banners with headlines from the Consumer Electronics Show in an attempt to increase click-through rates.

http://digg.com/ecomagination

GE Aviation Tests New Technology

2010-08-30T05:28:00.000-07:00

Test flight signals larger GE, Boeing FAA role
An American Airlines flight last week became the first in the U.S. to land using an approach designed by a private company, which may lead to a larger role for business in crafting routes for the government.
Flight 1916 from Dallas landed at Bradley International Airport near Hartford, Connecticut, on Thursday, guided by procedures written by General Electric Co.'s Naverus unit. The flight shows companies can speed the redesign of routes, helping carriers save time and fuel, said Brian Will, director of airspace modernization at AMR Corp.'s American.

"We will use this all the time," Will, who flew American's Boeing Co. 737-800 to Connecticut, said of the landing approach in an interview. "It's a benefit to us."

AIG and GE See Increase in Aircraft Leasing

2010-08-28T07:05:00.000-07:00

GE, AIG See Air-Leasing Competition Heat Up
Just as established players in the aircraft-leasing business are getting back on their feet, scrappy start-ups are giving them a run for their money.
Given the disparity in size between the biggest and smallest competitors, it may not make much of a difference. The two key industry players, American International Group's (AIG) International Lease Finance Corp. and General Electric's (GE) GE Commercial Aviation Services, dominate the industry, with at least three times as many aircraft as their closest competitors.
The battle is interesting if only for the high-profile players -- as well as the profits involved in each leasing arrangement as demand has started to heat up.
GECAS and ILFC have been at the top of the aircraft-leasing space for a long time, making it difficult for new entrants to build a book of business. The two firms now boast 1,800 and 1,000 aircraft, respectively; the next largest competitors have 100 to 300 aircraft and smaller start-ups might have less than a dozen.

New GE Aviation Plant in Alabama

2010-08-28T07:02:00.000-07:00

GE Aviation to open new plant in Alabama
GE Aviation plans establish a facility in Alabama to develop high-tech coatings for military engine components, the company announced Aug. 25 in conjunction with state officials. The exact location is being determined.
The plant is expected to employ from 300 to 400 people later in the decade when production of the F136 engine for the Joint Strike Fighter achieves full production, it said in a news release.
GE and Rolls-Royce are fighting to maintain government funding for development of their alternative engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. It would compete for orders with the primary F-35 engine being developed by Pratt & Whitney.

Big Spending on GE Lobbying

2010-08-24T20:42:00.000-07:00

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) Spent $8.3 Million on Q2 Lobbying
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) spent a total of $8.3 million lobbying the federal government during the second quarter, working on a wide range of issues including clean energy legislation and financial reform legislation.The conglomerate company spent more than the $7.2 million that it spent during the second quarter of 2009, as a number of major pieces worked their way through congress. The report came from a disclosure which was filed with the House’s clerk office on July 20th. The company also spent more than the $7.14 million it spent during the first quarter of 2010.

New Energy and Appliance Partnerships for GE

2010-08-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

GE Teams with Major Utilities, Builders and Communities to Increase American Home Efficiency by 70%, Save Homeowners $100s/yr. on Energy Bills
A team of technologists from GE's Industrial Solutions, Appliances, Lighting and Research divisions is partnering with major utilities, builders and local communities in the western U.S. to evaluate and develop new strategies that reduce energy usage in new and existing homes by up to 70% or more. With the average U.S. household paying $1,240 per year in electricity costs, this program could save homeowners more than $850 per year on their electricity costs.

Nation's Third Largest Homebuilder Selects GE as Exclusive Appliance Supplier
GE Appliances & Lighting signed a contract to continue its role as the single-source appliance supplier for Lennar Homes, the third largest homebuilder in the country(1). GE was selected for the strength of its brand, homebuyer satisfaction, back room efficiencies, and the scope of its nationwide service and delivery network. In 2009, Lennar Homes built 11,478 homes in 17 states, from California to Massachusetts. GE will provide GE(R), GE Profile(TM), and GE Monogram(R) appliances for all new homes between now and Dec. 31, 2014.

Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights

2010-08-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

It appears that the strength of the dollar in recent months due to the Euro crisis is already starting to take its toll on U.S. international competitiveness. It is not just that our trade deficit with Europe is deteriorating, rising to $7.8 billion in June from $6.2 billion in May. Our companies compete directly with European companies in many third-world countries.

For example, General Electric (NYSE: GE - News) and Siemens (NYSE: SI - News) of Germany both make products like MRI machines. If the value of the euro falls 10% against the dollar, then Siemens can easily undercut the price it quotes to a Chinese hospital that is interested in upgrading its medical imaging department, and thus get sales that might have otherwise gone to GE. China is, of course, our largest bilateral trade deficit, and it increased to $26.2 billion from $22.3 billion in May.

Full Article Here

747s with GE Engines Included in FAA Order

2010-08-21T08:45:00.000-07:00

US FAA orders fixes in Boeing 747s - WSJ

The U.S. air-safety regulator, last week, moved to require certain engine-related wiring changes to Boeing Co's model, the paper said.According to the agency, the fixes are necessary to avoid potentially dangerous retraction of flaps, or panels that deploy from the wings to provide extra lift during takeoffs.FAA said that the retracting flaps during critical early phases of flight could result in reduced climb performance and consequent collision with terrain and obstacles, the paper said.The regulators directive will cover nearly 100 Boeing 747s flown by U.S. carriers and equipped with engines manufactured by both General Electric Co. and the Pratt & Whitney unit of United Technologies Corp, the business daily said.

GE to Benefit from Credit Card Boom

2010-08-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

Store-Brand Credit Cards Boom

The private-label corner of the U.S. credit-card market is enjoying a resurgence as fewer Americans fall behind on their payments.Like the broader credit-card industry, delinquencies on store-brand or private-label cards are slowing. That is good news for retailers such as Target Corp. and Nordstrom Inc. and issuers like Citigroup Inc. and General Electric Co. with hefty holdings of store-brand cards.Such specialized retail credit cards differ from so-called general-purpose cards used at multiple-location stores. Store-brand cards are considered riskier because those bills often rank lower in the payment hierarchy of customers in financial distress. A chunk of the customer base for these cards is made up of low-income households and less credit-worthy borrowers. As a result, these cards typically carry higher interest rates and lower credit lines than general-purpose cards.

GE's Latest Healthcare Partnership

2010-08-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Immunomedics collaborates with GE Healthcare

Biopharmaceutical company Immunomedics Inc. said Wednesday it will work with GE Healthcare to evaluate an imaging agent that could be used in identifying cancers.
Immunomedics and GE Healthcare will collaborate to evaluate Immunomedics' method of attaching peptides to an imaging agent called F-18. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but Immunomedics said the General Electric Co. unit will cover all costs related to the collaboration.

Ecomagination is Alive and Well

2010-08-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

GE pushes Eco 2.0 innovation and collaboration
General Electric announced a renewed commitment to its five-year-old Ecomagination initiative, including $10 billion investment, a new campaign, and PR support.
The GE Ecomagination Challenge: Powering the Grid launched July 13 and runs for 10 weeks, promoting more engagement between GE and entrepreneurs.
"The Challenge exemplifies this open innovation and collaborative approach GE is taking with its big initiatives, particularly around SmartGrid for this one," said Leigh Farris, manager of corporate communications for GE.
Entrepreneurs, technology experts, and start-up companies can submit their ideas for building the next generation power grid, with the winning ideas announced in October. Since its launch, GE has received more than 750 ideas for the Challenge.

Recent GE Acquisition and Partnerships

2010-08-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

G.E. and Intel Form Health Venture
General Electric and Intel said on Monday that they had formed a joint venture to create products for patients with chronic diseases and for elderly people at home or in assisted living.
The 50-50 venture is part of a collaboration begun last year, the companies said in a statement that did not elaborate on the terms. G.E. will contribute its home health unit’s assets and Intel will contribute its digital health group’s assets, the companies said.

GE acquires ECS from SNC-Lavalin
General Electric Co. bought Montreal-based SNC-Lavalin's Energy Control Systems business and its network management and control software for an undisclosed amount.ECS makes software to improve power efficiency and reliability. Its headquarters will remain in Montreal and it will keep its staff.

GE joint venture engine gets joint certification from FAA, Europe
The advanced engine developed by a GE Aviation venture for the Boeing Next Generation 737 aircraft received joint certification from U.S. and European safety agencies.

24/7 Wall St.: 2010 Becomes The Year of the Conglomerates

2010-08-02T05:35:00.000-07:00

2010 may be a directionless year for the stock markets so far, but shares of conglomerates are outperforming and more upside is expected. The five largest conglomerates we follow are all higher for the year. We took a look at General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM), Honeywell International Inc. (NYSE: HON), United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (NYSE: BRK-A) to see which conglomerates were outperforming and why. With a mixed bag between the performance of the SPDRs (NYSE: SPY) and DIAMONDS (NYSE: DIA), the performance so far stands out significantly for all of these large companies.
Conglomerates are supposed to offer safety because of their diversification. That is the theory, and the theory seems to be working so far in 2010. They are also generally good for screens when it comes to value investors and dividend investors. We put together a small table here for comparison of the stocks and the performance. If there are any discrepancies over the “listed” December 31, 2010 versus the papers on official closes, it is because the figures below have accounted for the dividend effects in the stocks. We have also shown the year-to-date gains up to the close of Thursday, July 29, 2010 and we even gave an implied upside target to the consensus analyst price objective in the shares.

Read more: 2010 Becomes The Year of the Conglomerates (GE, MMM, HON, UTX, BRK-A, SPY, DIA)

GE Consumer Finance Cuts Operations in Japan

2010-08-02T05:32:00.000-07:00

General Electric Consumer Finance Scales Way Back
GE Consumer Finance in Japan offers credit cards, housing loans and insurance services.
Because of the Tokyo's decision to crack down on lenders charging exorbitant rates, 30%….making the max 20% in two years, GE Consumer, a subsidiary of General Electric, will scale down its operations.

Source: Japanlyst

Dividend and Long Term Outlook for GE

2010-08-02T05:30:00.000-07:00

Guru Stocks Raising Dividends: General Electric Company
General Electric is one of the largest and most diversified industrial corporations in the world. General Electric Company has a market cap of $172.11 billion; its shares were traded at around $16.12 with a P/E ratio of 14.8 and P/S ratio of 1.1. The company raised its quarterly dividend 20% to 12 cents/share on Friday. The news sent the stock over 3% higher for the day. Whether the company can rebuild its streak of consecutive dividend increases remains to be seen however.

GE announced today second-quarter 2010 earnings from revenues decreased 4% to $37.4 billion. GE Capital Services’ (GECS) revenues fell 2% versus last year to $13.1 billion. Industrial sales were $24.4 billion, down 6% from the second quarter of 2009. Continuing operations (attributable to GE) were $3.3 billion, with EPS of $0.30 per share up 15% from the second quarter of 2009. Revenues were $37.4 billion for the quarter, down 4% from a year ago, impacted by lower GE Capital assets, industrial dispositions and lower equipment sales as expected.

The Unusual Suspects For This Week
General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) is one that we’d want our readers to be involved in for a longer-term outlook. It has gotten through earnings season and is continuing to eliminate some of the finance unit’s dominance. NBC-Universal is still a deal under review but it is still in the process of being a stake divesting that will generate cash. With a 3% dividend yield after the hike and with its share buyback commencing immediately, there is probably more of a floor under the shares. After our review of conglomerates and their leadership over the broad market, we also found that G.E. is the conglomerate with the most implied upside for investors.

Continued Bond Bid-Rigging Indictments

2010-08-01T06:06:00.000-07:00

U.S. Predicts More Indictments in Municipal Bond Bid-Rigging Investigation
More indictments are expected in a federal antitrust investigation of the $2.8 trillion municipal bond market, a prosecutor told a federal judge in New York.
Rebecca Meiklejohn, a lawyer with the Justice Department’s antitrust division, made the disclosure at a hearing in Manhattan in the criminal case of CDR Financial Products Inc. and three of its employees, charged as part of an ongoing probe of bid- and auction-rigging in the municipal market. Three ex- bankers with a General Electric Co. unit were indicted in same probe this week.
Lawyers for the CDR defendants went to court today to ask U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero to direct the government to give them early access to the prosecution’s evidence and identify any material that might help to clear their clients. Meiklejohn objected, saying the defendants weren’t entitled to early access and the government’s investigation is still moving ahead.
“This is a very expansive case,” Meikeljohn told Marrero, addressing the broader probe. “Just this week the government indicted more individuals in connection with this investigation. This is a continuing investigation and we expect there to be more indictments.”

More About Bond Bidding, from Amazon:
Electronic Bidding for Municipal Bonds: Technology Innovations for Competitive Bond Sales.: An article from: Government Finance ReviewRepetitive bidding for municipal bonds: A chance-constrained programming approach (Faculty working paper)

WSJ: GE Dividend: Good Sign or Management out of Ideas?

2010-07-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

It’s no secret corporate America is sitting on a huge stash of cash these days, and investors are watching closely to see when/if/how they plan to spend it.
First, what not to do, according to my colleague Matt Phillips: use the extra cash to expand capacity. It seems investors are skittish about companies getting too gung-ho with the economy still on the mend.
But if investors don’t seem to crave aggressive business strategies, what’s a big cash-rich corporation to do?
General Electric offers one example. On Friday, the blue-chip announced it would raise its dividend by 20% and reinstate a share-buyback plan, the first dividend increase since the company slashed its dividend in early 2009.
GE shares have been reaping a short-term windfall from that decision. They’re up more than 5% in the past few days, an apparent vindication of an idea often overlooked by corporate chiefs: If you’re not going to spend all that cash, why not return it to shareholders?

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

GE in Regulatory Hot Water

2010-07-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

Three Former General Electric Bankers Are Indicted in Bid-Rigging Inquiry
Three former bankers with a General Electric Co. unit that sold investment contracts to state and local governments were indicted for conspiring to rig bidding to profit at taxpayers’ expense, the Justice Department said today.
Dominick P. Carollo, Steven E. Goldberg and Peter S. Grimm, all of whom once worked for finance units of General Electric, were charged with fraud and conspiracy, the Justice Department said. The three allegedly worked with brokers hired by local governments to solicit competitive bids for investment deals, in order to win the bidding and increase their profits.
“The individuals charged today allegedly participated in complex fraud schemes and conspiracies to manipulate what was supposed to be a competitive process,” Christine Varney, assistant attorney general in charge of the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division, said in a statement

GE to settle SEC charges of foreign bribery
General Electric agreed to pay $23.4 million on Tuesday to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint, which alleges that GE bribed Iraqi government officials to win contracts to supply medical and water-purification equipment under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
The SEC alleges that two GE subsidiaries and two companies that the conglomerate later acquired paid $3.6 million in kickbacks to the Iraqi Health Ministry and Iraqi Oil Ministry for valuable contracts. The bribes, which are illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, came in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services, the SEC said.
The SEC alleges that two GE subsidiaries and two companies that the conglomerate later acquired paid $3.6 million in kickbacks to the Iraqi Health Ministry and Iraqi Oil Ministry for valuable contracts. The bribes, which are illegal under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, came in the form of cash, computer equipment, medical supplies and services, the SEC said.

Immelt and Obama at Odds

2010-07-28T19:26:00.000-07:00

GE finds itself on wrong side of Obama's defense agenda
For more than a year, General Electric has been notable among U.S. corporations for enjoying generally friendly relations with the White House. The company was broadly supportive of President Obama's stimulus efforts, and its chairman, Jeffrey Immelt, sits on a White House economic advisory board.
But now the White House and GE are clashing publicly over a fighter-jet engine -- built by the company and its British partner, Rolls-Royce -- that has been on the Pentagon's chopping block for years, only to be rescued repeatedly by Congress. The issue is poised to come to a head Tuesday during a House subcommittee markup for the annual defense appropriations bill, which Obama has threatened to veto if it has the $485 million for the engine.
GE -- whose financing arm received billions of dollars in federal bailout funds -- has launched a furious lobbying and media effort in recent months aimed at securing funding for the engine, which would serve as an alternate for Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Pratt & Whitney, the Pentagon's choice for developing an F-35 engine, has fired back with a lobbying and advertising campaign of its own.

Recent Market and Stock Performance

2010-07-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

Wall Street jumps on GE data
General Electric delivered a shot of confidence to US investors when it raised its dividend, pushing the S&P 500 through the key 1,100 level.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 102.32 points, or 0.99 percent, to 10,424.62. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 8.99 points, or 0.82 percent, to 1,102.66. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 23.58 points, or 1.05 percent, to 2,269.47.

Crash In Hindsight: General Electric Currently 4.70% Above its May 6th Crash Low of $15.00 (GE)
General Electric (NYSE:GE) is currently trading 4.70% above its May 6th low of $15.00. Investors are looking to see if this 'flash crash' low can act as support signaling the stock has completed a bottoming process.
In the past 52-weeks, shares of General Electric have traded between a low of $11.25 and a high of $19.7 and are now at $15.71, which is 39.60% above that low price.
SmarTrend is bearish on shares of General Electric and our subscribers were alerted to Sell on May 06, 2010 at $16.58. The stock has fallen 5.2% since the alert was issued.

BusinessWeek: Can GE Still Manage?

2010-04-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

CEO Jeff Immelt says his company trains the best business leaders in the world. Yet they haven't saved him from a hellish decade that cut GE's value in half.

A couple of Fridays each month, Jeffrey R. Immelt hosts a sleepover. The chairman and CEO of General Electric (GE) invites one of the 185 officers of his company—and only one—to his home in New Canaan, Conn., for a leisurely meal. After a few drinks, some laughs, a plate of pasta, and a wide-ranging discussion of what's going on in the world, the two executives part. Immelt, 54, stays home while his guest heads to lodging at GE headquarters in nearby Fairfield. When they reconvene the next morning, things get personal. "We spend Saturday morning just talking about their careers," says Immelt. "Who they are, how they fit, how I see their strengths and weaknesses—stuff like that." One recent guest, Steve Bolze, president and CEO of GE Power & Water, calls it "a really nice discussion, a chance to get to know each other better."
What does it say about Immelt that after almost a decade in the top job he's looking for ways to bond with his team? "The personal connection is something I may have taken for granted before that I don't want to ever take for granted again," he says. "Sometimes there's a tendency to say, 'Well, this is an officer of the company. They've been here 20 years. They can figure it out. Do they really need me to draw them a diagram?' But you need to make the time."
The sleepovers are part of a major rethink by Immelt, a personal reevaluation of how GE equips its people to lead. The reappraisal was triggered by the global financial crisis, which shook the $157 billion-a-year conglomerate, almost destroyed its financial services unit, and sent its share price from $29 in the days before Lehman Brothers crashed to below $6. (It has since recovered to around $19, leaving GE's market cap, at roughly $200 billion, about half what it once was.) That led Immelt to become what he describes as "self-reflective on steroids" and to ask a hard question: "Was there one of my top 150 people who was thinking, 'You know, Jeff, commercial real estate shouldn't be so goddamn big,' but didn't have a way to say [it]?"
Immelt intends to spend this year exploring new ideas, which he describes as "wallowing in it," to decide how GE should shape and measure its leaders. He has solicited management suggestions from a broad range of organizations—from Google (GOOG) to China's Communist Party—and sent 30 of his top people to more than 100 companies worldwide. He's holding monthly dinners with 10 executives and an external "thought leader" to debate leadership. He launched a pilot program to bring in personal coaches for high-potential talent, a practice that GE once reserved mainly for those in need of remedial work. To increase exposure to the world beyond GE, Immelt is even reconsidering the age-old rule that employees can't sit on corporate boards. "I think about it all the time," he says. "You have to be willing to change when it makes sense."

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

Recovery, Earnings, and Stock Performance

2010-04-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

GE Investors Look Past Finance Rut for Stabilization
General Electric Co. investors say profit declines may be easing, allowing them to look beyond the slump for signs that Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt is stabilizing the finance unit and driving industrial orders. GE, the world’s biggest maker of jet engines, power-plant turbines and medical-imaging equipment, may say tomorrow that profit from continuing operations fell to 16 cents a share from 26 cents a year earlier, analysts estimate. Earnings may improve enough later in the year that GE can raise its dividend in 2011, the Fairfield, Connecticut-based company said in March. The prospect has lifted GE to the highest since the midst of the U.S. financial crisis 18 months ago. “They may actually surprise on the upside with real revenue growth here, and the comparisons are kind of easy,” said Peter Sorrentino, a senior portfolio manager at Huntington Asset Advisors in Cincinnati who helps handle $12.8 billion, including more than 2.1 million GE shares as of March 31. “Any little surprises on, say like energy systems, that’s the kind of thing that people are going to latch onto and say, ‘Hey, the big kids are back in town.’” GE may be poised to show investors steadily improving profit margins, cash generation and order growth amid a buffer of free cash that the company has predicted to be about $25 billion at the end of 2010, said Steven Winoker, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co.GE may see one more quarter of declining earnings before profits start to climb against year-earlier comparisons in the second half, analysts surveyed by Bloomberg estimate.

Shares set to trim gains; eyes on GE
European shares were seen falling on Friday, trimming lofty gains made over the past two sessions, as investors awaited quarterly results from global conglomerate General Electric (GE.N) and fresh insight on the outlook for company profits.

Income Falls, but G.E. Tops Forecasts
General Electric, reassured by signs that a global recovery was gaining momentum, said on Friday that its profit for the year might exceed expectations. General Electric's aviation plant in Durham, N.C. G.E.'s chief , Jeffrey R. Immelt, said he saw “encouraging economic signs.” “We feel pretty good about where we’re positioned as the recovery continues,” the chief executive, Jeffrey R. Immelt, told investors in a conference call about first-quarter results. He said G.E. might undertake additional cost-cutting as it refocused the business on its industrial components, which include production of items like wind turbines and jet engines. G.E., based in Fairfield, Conn., said it was encouraged by indications that the tide of loan losses at its financial unit, GE Capital, was beginning to reverse. Credit card delinquencies have fallen, the company said, and losses on mortgages in Britain are easing.

GE Options Headlines from BusinessWeek & Forbes

2010-04-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

GE Options Traders Boost Bullish Bets Before Earnings
Trading of bullish General Electric Co. options rose to more than triple the four-week average as investors boosted bets that the shares will keep rising from a 17-month high tomorrow after the company reports earnings. More than 310,000 calls giving the right to buy the stock changed hands at 4 p.m. New York time as the shares climbed a fourth day, adding 0.8 percent to $19.50. The most-active contracts were April $20 calls, which rose 50 percent to 15 cents for the fourth-biggest gain among GE options. Almost two calls changed hands today for each put option to sell the stock. This month’s options expire at tomorrow’s close.

Bulls Rush Into Ford, GE And Bank Of America
General Electric: Bullish players flooded the options arena on diverse conglomerate, General Electric Company, Thursday amid a more than 1.5% rally in the price of its shares to a new 52-week high of $19.69. Investors are positioning for continued upward momentum in the price of the underlying stock by coveting call options in the April and May contracts. Bullish traders purchased more than 42,600 calls at the April $20 strike for an average premium of $0.16 per contract. GE's share price must surpass the average breakeven point on the calls at $20.16 ahead of expiration tomorrow in order for call-buyers to accumulate profits on the call contracts. Buying interest spread to the May $20 strike where more than 12,200 calls were picked up for an average premium of $0.47 a-pop. These optimistic individuals make money as long as General Electric's shares rally approximately 4% from the new 52-week high of $19.69 to exceed the average breakeven price of $20.47 by May expiration. The overall reading of options implied volatility on GE is up 11.5% to 29.58% just after noon.

LED Revenue Growth, NBC Earnings, and GE's recovery

2010-04-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

GE sees growth in LED revenue
“LEDs are probably the largest growth area” for the lighting industry, Michael Petras, chief executive officer of GE's lighting business, said in an interview in Frankfurt Monday. LEDs make up “less than 10 percent” of GE Lighting's global sales, and that proportion probably will rise to one-third by 2015, with the overall market doubling “in the next couple of years,” he said.

GE Lighting's sales will be “flat or slightly positive” this year, Petras said. They fell to $2.5 billion in 2009 from $2.8 billion in 2008, according to presentations on GE's Web site. GE is the world's third- largest lighting company, after Royal Philips Electronics and Siemens's Osram. Its Appliances & Lighting division is headquartered in Louisville.

NBC Universal earnings drag down parent General Electric's results

NBC Universal is relieved that its winter financial wipeout is finally over.

Parent company General Electric Co. on Friday released its first-quarter results, which included, as expected, substantial losses generated by NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.
Although GE posted a 32% drop in earnings, the company nonetheless beat analysts' expectations.
GE Chairman Jeffrey Immelt said there were signs the economy was improving, along with the industrial giant's profit margins -- except for a couple of problem divisions.
"NBC, because of the Olympics, was a drag on margins overall," Immelt said.
NBC Universal's operating profit of $199 million was down 49% compared with the first quarter of 2009. Revenue of $4.32 billion for the quarter was up 23% compared with the year-earlier period, but it was about flat when ad sales for the Olympics were excluded from the results.
GE executives warned investors several months ago that NBC would lose as much as $250 million on its coverage of the Vancouver Olympic Games -- but it did not turn out as bad as first feared. NBC ended up losing $223 million on the Olympics, GE said, thanks to better-than-anticipated advertising.
General Electric Rehab On Track
General Electric's road to recovery may be rocky, but it's on the road nonetheless as it beat Wall Street's views on first quarter profit.

Among the most important morsels withing GE's report was the update on the progress of GE's financial arm GE Capital Services. The good news is GE Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said losses appear to have peaked, but that's not to say the problems will be over anytime soon. GE Capital was able to report earnings of $607 million in the first quarter, but commercial real estate continues to be "challenging". Thankfully, losses, delinquencies and non-earning assets have also declined during the first quarter.