General Electric (NYSE:GE) shares got a bump in pre-market trading today after the industrial conglomerate posted third-quarter results that beat the consensus forecast and raised its earnings outlook for the rest of the year.
Boston-based GE reported losses of -$9.47 billion, or -$1.08 per share, on sales of $23.36 billion for the three months ended Sept. 30, paring its losses by -58.5% on flat sales compared with Q3 2018.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 15¢, 4¢ ahead of the consensus on Wall Street, where analysts were looking for revenues of $22.93 billion.
“Our results reflect another quarter of progress in the transformation of GE. We are encouraged by our strong backlog, organic growth, margin expansion and positive cash trajectory amidst global macro uncertainty. We are raising our industrial free cash flow outlook again, even with external headwinds from the 737 MAX and tariffs, and we are holding our adjusted EPS outlook despite reduced income from moving Baker Hughes to discontinued operations,” chairman & CEO Lawrence Culp Jr. said in prepared remarks. “This quarter, during strategy reviews with each of our businesses, we identified and prioritized operating improvements and growth investments that will drive sustainable results. We have more work to do, and we will continue to take actions to improve our financial position and strengthen our businesses as we prepare for 2020 and beyond. I remain confident that we will unlock value for GE’s stakeholders as our transformation accelerates.”
GE said it now expects to report adjusted EPS of 55¢ to 65¢ this year, up from 50¢ to 55¢ previously.
The results sent GE shares, which closed flat at $9.07 apiece yesterday, up some 8.2% to $9.78 each today before the market’s open.
Healthcare profits gain on mid-single-digit top-line growth
GE Healthcare reported profit growth of 13.1% to $974 million on sales growth of 4.6% to $4.92 billion, compared with Q3 2018, the company said.
GE attributed the growth of healthcare business profits to “volume and cost productivity, partially offset by inflation, tariffs and program investments.”
