General Electric (NYSE:GE) Sets New 1-Year High Following Analyst Upgrade

General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s share price hit a new 52-week high during trading on Monday after Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on the stock from $165.00 to $192.00. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an overweight rating on the stock. General Electric traded as high as $166.00 and last traded at $165.89, with a volume of 2300001 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $162.35.

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup lifted their price objective on General Electric from $120.43 to $186.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays cut their target price on General Electric from $181.00 to $175.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. TheStreet upgraded General Electric from a “c+” rating to a “b+” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on General Electric from $190.00 to $211.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Finally, Vertical Research initiated coverage on General Electric in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price objective on the stock. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $172.29.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GE. Avestar Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of General Electric in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $267,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in General Electric by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 351,098 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $38,814,000 after purchasing an additional 9,134 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of General Electric by 9.5% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 139,128 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $15,381,000 after acquiring an additional 12,020 shares during the last quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of General Electric by 977.2% during the 3rd quarter. Kingswood Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 46,609 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $5,153,000 after acquiring an additional 42,282 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of General Electric by 26.9% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 583,995 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $64,561,000 after acquiring an additional 123,743 shares during the last quarter. 74.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

General Electric Stock Up 1.3 %

The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $161.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $136.80. The company has a market cap of $180.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 53.93, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.17.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.17. General Electric had a net margin of 5.05% and a return on equity of 12.54%. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.25 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.27 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 11.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that General Electric will post 3.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th were issued a $0.28 dividend. This is a positive change from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. General Electric’s payout ratio is 36.72%.

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.