Royal Bank of Canada Reaffirms “Outperform” Rating for General Electric (NYSE:GE)

Royal Bank of Canada reiterated their outperform rating on shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE) in a research note released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $200.00 price target on the conglomerate’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on GE. Northcoast Research started coverage on General Electric in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on General Electric from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Bank of America raised their price objective on General Electric from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Finally, Melius Research lifted their price target on General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Three 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, General Electric has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $205.80.

General Electric Trading Down 2.0 %

General Electric stock opened at $196.81 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $174.93 and a two-hundred day moving average of $174.77. 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 has a one year low of $103.75 and a one year high of $207.65. The stock has a market cap of $213.00 billion, a PE ratio of 34.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.53 and a beta of 1.19.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.27. General Electric had a return on equity of 18.93% and a net margin of 11.48%. On average, research analysts anticipate that General Electric will post 4.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be issued a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 27th. General Electric’s payout ratio is currently 19.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Electric

In other news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of General Electric 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 148,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,539,714.53. The trade was a 9.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of General Electric 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 in the company, valued at $2,407,036.57. This represents a 34.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of General Electric

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Toth Financial Advisory Corp acquired a new position in General Electric during the third quarter worth $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. acquired a new position in General Electric during the third quarter worth $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in General Electric during the third quarter worth $27,000. Peterson Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in General Electric during the third quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in General Electric during the fourth quarter worth $29,000. 74.77% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

General Electric Company Profile

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.