General Electric beat sales and earnings expectations on Tuesday despite its core industrial businesses burning through $1.2bn of cash in first three months of fiscal 2019.
Shares of the Boston-based company were up nearly 11% in premarket trading following its upbeat earnings report.
GE stock had gained nearly 34% since the beginning of the year, and lost 30% in the past 12 months through Monday’s close. The stock was up 7.46% to $10.44 as of 10:41 a.m. ET.
GE Earnings & Outlook
General Electric reported net income of $3.55 billion, or $0.41 per share, compared with net loss of $1.18 billion, or $0.14 per share, in the earlier-year period.
Adjusted for special items, earnings came to $0.14 per share compared with $0.15 per share in the first quarter of the previous year.
Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected the industrial conglomerate to post adjusted earnings of $0.09 per share in the March quarter of this year. Companywide revenue was pegged at $27.29 billion, down 2% on a year-over-year basis but above Refinitiv consensus of $27 billion.
General Electric’s power business brought in revenue of $5.66 billion, down 22% but ahead of $5.33 billion forecast.
Revenue from its oil & gas segment missed expectations of $5.69 billion but jumped 4% to $5.62 billion, while its aviation unit surpassed expectations of $7.86 billion after rising 12% to $7.95 billion.
The company generated revenue of $4.68 billion from its healthcare unit, while revenue in its renewable energy business fell 3% to $1.60 billion below forecasts of $1.86 billion. For the full year, the company is still expecting its industrial free cash flow to be between flat to negative $2 billion.
General Electric CEO Comments
GE Chairman and CEO H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. said, “We saw progress in the first quarter as we continued to execute on our priorities to improve our financial position and strengthen our businesses. We announced the sale of BioPharma, closed the Wabtec merger, settled WMC, and improved our operating performance.”
“We delivered strong industrial orders in the quarter, up 9 percent organically, with backlog closing at $374 billion, up 6 percent year over year. Our quarterly results were better than our expectations, largely driven by timing of certain items, which should balance out over the course of the year. Therefore, we expect our performance for the year to be in line with our previous commentary,” Culp added.
General Electric Profile
With historical ties to inventor Thomas Edison, General Electric was formed through the combination of two companies in 1892.
Today, GE is known for its digital industrial offerings and massive installed base spread across a variety of products and services, including aircraft engines, gas turbines, steam turbines, wind turbines, locomotives, and LED lighting, among others.
In its current form, the company focuses on aviation, healthcare, and power, but management announced corporate actions in 2018 that will make aviation, power, and renewable energy the primary areas of focus going forward.
