Shares in General Electric (NYSE:GE) slid today before the market opened before sliding a further -2% after the industrial conglomerate missed top-line expectations for the 4th quarter and full year, despite solid contributions from its GE Healthcare subsidiary.
GE Healthcare put up profits of $1.03 billion, up 9.8%, on sales growth of 2.6% to $5.10 billion for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2016. For the full year, profits were up 9.7% to $3.16 billion, on revenues of $18.29 billion, for top-line growth of 3.7%. The division’s bottom-line growth was driven by “volume growth and cost productivity, partially offset by price,” GE said.
But the Boston-based parent company reported an overall Q4 profit slide of -44.5% to $3.49 billion, or 39¢ per share, on a -2.4% sales decline to $33.09 billion compared with Q4 2015 – shy of the consensus Wall Street forecast of $33.63 billion. GE did eke out a match to The Street’s outlook for earnings per share, reporting adjusted EPS of 46¢ for the quarter.
GE swung from red to black for the full year, posting profits of $8.18 billion, or 89¢ per share, on a 4.3% sales gain to $110.39 billion, compared with a loss of -$6.15 billion in 2015. Adjusted EPS for 2016 also met the consensus at $1.49 apiece.
Still, investors pushed GE shares down -2.1% to $30.57 apiece at 1 point before the markets opened today; the stock opened down -1.4% at $30.76 per share and was trading at $30.60 in early activity, off -2.0% on the day.
“We executed on our 2016 goals and continued to drive growth across our businesses through the GE Store while investing in additive manufacturing and digital technology. We delivered $1.49 of [adjusted] earnings per share this year and 1% of organic growth. We reported $32.6 billion of free cash flow and dispositions and returned $30.5 billion to share-owners through dividends and buyback. We will continue to invest in the industrial internet to lead in productivity and performance for our customers in 2017,” chairman & CEO Jeff Immelt said in prepared remarks.
