General Electric (NYSE:GE) Announces $0.28 Quarterly Dividend

General Electric (NYSE:GE) declared a quarterly dividend on Friday, December 13th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of 0.28 per share by the conglomerate on Monday, January 27th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%.

General Electric has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect General Electric to earn $5.19 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.12 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.6%.

General Electric Trading Up 0.7 %

GE traded up $1.18 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $166.01. 4,508,819 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,123,543. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.22, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.17. General Electric has a one year low of $95.92 and a one year high of $194.80. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $180.72 and its 200 day simple moving average is $172.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.13.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.02. The firm 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 for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that General Electric will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at General Electric

In other news, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total value of $1,267,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 13,289 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,407,036.57. This represents a 34.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.29, for a total value of $2,772,409.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 148,857 shares in the company, valued at $26,539,714.53. The trade was a 9.46 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on General Electric from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, October 3rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Melius Research upped their target price on shares of General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on General Electric from $201.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen 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 an average target price of $201.93.

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.