General Electric (NYSE:GE) Stock Price Up 1.5% – Should You Buy?

General Electric (NYSE:GE)’s share price traded up 1.5% during trading on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $174.43 and last traded at $174.26. 603,848 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 90% from the average session volume of 6,292,235 shares. The stock had previously closed at $171.76.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on General Electric from $175.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 30th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of General Electric from $201.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Citigroup boosted 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. UBS Group increased their price target on General Electric from $223.00 to $230.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Melius Research upped their price objective on General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $200.93.

General Electric Price Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $180.47 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $169.59. The firm has a market cap of $193.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.35, a PEG ratio of 1.70 and a beta of 1.19.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The company had revenue of $9.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.02 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 26th were issued a $0.28 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 26th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.63%. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.68%.

Insider Transactions at General Electric

In other news, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total transaction of $1,267,910.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,407,036.57. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Toth Financial Advisory Corp acquired a new stake in General Electric in the third quarter valued at $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new stake in General Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in General Electric during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in General Electric during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Finally, Studio Investment Management LLC raised its stake in General Electric by 97.5% in the second quarter. Studio Investment Management LLC now owns 158 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after buying an additional 78 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

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.