General Electric Co posted an 80 percent rise in first-quarter profit that topped Wall Street's expectations, helped by a strong recovery in its finance arm. But the results, which followed a series of better-than-expected earnings reports from top US manufacturers, failed to impress investors and shares of the largest US conglomerate fell 2 percent on Thursday.
The world's biggest maker of jet engines and electric turbines also raised its dividend for the third time since July, though Chief Executive Jeff Immelt warned investors that GE does not plan to keep up that pace of increases and is likely to start reviewing the payout annually.
Analysts noted GE's 6 percent rise in revenue - which came across all divisions - may have been inflated by a change in its fiscal calendar that added six days to the first quarter. "Many folks in the stock market today have high expectations," said Peter Klein, senior portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management in Cleveland. "GE is up from $7 in the depths of the selloff to $20 to $21 and maybe it is forming more of a psychological barrier at that level."
GE shares were down 48 cents at $19.92 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, at a time when the broad Standard & Poor's 500 index was little changed. The company was part of a wave of top US manufacturers that have topped analysts' first-quarter profit expectations. United Technologies Corp, Honeywell International Inc and Danaher Corp also did so and went on to raise their profit forecasts for the year, saying the US economic recovery is firming and that demand from emerging markets including China and India remains robust.
GE does not give per-share profit forecasts, but Immelt told investors on a conference call that he expects "very solid operating earnings growth" this year. An index of US economic health released on Thursday rose for the ninth straight month in March, showing that the nation's recovery had not been hit by Japan's nuclear crisis.
GE also raised its quarterly dividend by 1 cent to 15 cents, for a 50 percent cumulative increase since July. GE aims to pay out 45 percent of its profit to shareholders. "Over time we're going to get back to an annual dividend increase," Immelt said. Fellow blue chip manufacturer United Tech, which last week hiked its payout by 12.9 percent, aims to raise its dividend every five quarters.
Since emerging from the financial crisis and selling a majority stake in NBC Universal to Comcast Corp, GE has invested heavily, spending $14 billion on takeovers over the past year. That pace of dealmaking is likely to slow. "Our major transactions are done for 2011," Immelt told investors. "Dividend and (share) buybacks take higher priority for the rest of the year."
Some investors expressed concern about GE's recent push in the energy sector. It was the one GE division to see profit fall in the quarter, though GE officials said they expect it to turn around later this year. "Energy's hot right now and they're buying, which means they're not getting rock-bottom valuations," said Jack De Gan, chief investment officer at Harbor Advisory Corp in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. "Time will tell if they overpaid or not."
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