General Electric (NYSE:GE) Stock Price Up 0.1% Following Dividend Announcement

General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s share price traded up 0.1% during trading on Monday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $209.16 and last traded at $208.62. 4,267,083 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 29% from the average session volume of 6,009,583 shares. The stock had previously closed at $208.36.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.36 dividend. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.69%. This is a boost from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio is 18.70%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on GE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their target price on shares of General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, January 2nd. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Melius Research increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of General Electric in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Northcoast Research began coverage on shares of General Electric in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. They set a “neutral” rating for the company. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $208.73.

General Electric Trading Up 0.1 %

The stock has a fifty day moving average of $182.66 and a 200 day moving average of $179.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market capitalization of $223.91 billion, a PE ratio of 34.83, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.22.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.27. General Electric had a return on equity of 22.19% and a net margin of 14.31%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that General Electric will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On General Electric

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of General Electric by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,815,318 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $14,980,297,000 after purchasing an additional 410,172 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in General Electric by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 66,823,968 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $11,145,570,000 after buying an additional 965,012 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in General Electric by 2.1% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 43,322,827 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $8,181,801,000 after buying an additional 898,296 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in General Electric by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 23,117,418 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $3,846,587,000 after buying an additional 529,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in General Electric in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,375,439,000. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.