Back to top

Image: Bigstock

General Electric (GE) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

General Electric (GE - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $9.33, moving +0.11% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.88%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.55%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.32%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the industrial conglomerate had lost 5.67% over the past month. This has lagged the Conglomerates sector's gain of 4.79% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.96% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from GE as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be April 30, 2019. On that day, GE is projected to report earnings of $0.08 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 50%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $26.92 billion, down 6.07% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $0.58 per share and revenue of $117.24 billion. These totals would mark changes of -10.77% and -3.6%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for GE. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. GE is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that GE has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.07 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.23.

Also, we should mention that GE has a PEG ratio of 3.78. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Diversified Operations was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.96 at yesterday's closing price.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, putting it in the top 38% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


General Electric Company (GE) - free report >>

Published in