Short Interest in General Electric (NYSE:GE) Grows By 6.8%

General Electric (NYSE:GE) was the recipient of a large increase in short interest in the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,890,000 shares, an increase of 6.8% from the September 30th total of 10,200,000 shares. Currently, 1.0% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 4,700,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.3 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on GE. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $201.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $205.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 23rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of General Electric from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $200.93.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GE. Capital International Investors lifted its position in General Electric by 9.9% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 59,100,643 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $10,373,936,000 after buying an additional 5,309,543 shares in the last quarter. Newport Trust Company LLC purchased a new stake in General Electric in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,613,332,000. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 2,818.1% during the 1st quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 12,749,560 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $2,237,930,000 after purchasing an additional 12,312,648 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 5.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 8,405,731 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,336,257,000 after purchasing an additional 459,201 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in shares of General Electric by 221.6% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 7,121,741 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $1,250,079,000 after purchasing an additional 4,907,530 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

General Electric Stock Performance

NYSE GE traded up $0.42 on Friday, hitting $172.20. The stock had a trading volume of 2,634,700 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,322,579. General Electric has a one year low of $85.89 and a one year high of $194.80. The company has a quick ratio of 0.85, a current ratio of 1.13 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market cap of $186.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.76, a P/E/G ratio of 1.72 and a beta of 1.18. The company’s 50-day moving average is $180.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $168.89.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $9.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.02 billion. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The business’s revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that General Electric will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 26th were paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 26th. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is presently 19.68%.

General Electric Company Profile

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.