General Electric (NYSE:GE) Shares Up 0.3%

General Electric (NYSE:GE) shot up 0.3% during trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $158.69 and last traded at $155.14. Approximately 1,818,064 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 77% from the average daily volume of 7,987,288 shares. The stock had previously closed at $154.63.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GE. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on General Electric from $180.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price target on General Electric from $210.00 to $190.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America cut their price target on General Electric from $175.00 to $165.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 8th. Vertical Research began coverage on General Electric in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price target for the company. Finally, TheStreet raised General Electric from a “c+” rating to a “b+” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $160.07.

General Electric Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $171.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.29. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $158.53 and its 200 day moving average price is $133.81. The company has a current ratio of 1.18, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.69.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.03 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.90 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $19.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.27 billion. General Electric had a return on equity of 10.88% and a net margin of 13.95%. General Electric’s quarterly revenue was up 15.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.24 EPS. On average, analysts expect that General Electric will post 3.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,153,863.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,153,863.08. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 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 value of $1,843,615.55. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 48,339 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,552,351.45. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Halpern Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of General Electric by 968.4% during the 4th quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 203 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 184 shares in the last quarter. Aspect Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Dagco Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Hobbs Group Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. 74.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About General Electric

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.