Dividend, Stock Performance, Jeffery Immelt, "Buy" Rating, and 10%+ Gain

GE's Increased Dividend - Not Until 2011
Speaking at a Goldman Sachs investor conference yesterday, General Electric (GE) CFO Keith Sherin indicated that profits at the conglomerate will begin growing again in 2011. GE’s profits have been in decline since 2007 and Wall Street expects another decline this year.

Dividend investors also have reason to cheer as GE’s CFO also indicated that the company plans to begin growing their dividend again, but not until 2011.
Early in 2009, GE slashed their quarterly dividend by 68% just as the stock was hitting its lowest point. Prior to the dividend cut, GE had been a member of the elite Dividend Aristocrats – stocks that had increased their dividends for 25 consecutive years or more. In fact, the dividend cut was the first for the company since 1938.
With earnings expected to begin recovering in the second half of this year, many dividend investors were hoping that GE would hike their dividend in 2010.
While GE’s dividend yield is a rather average 2.3%, investors who dumped their shares when the company cut their dividend are surely kicking themselves now. Since cutting their dividend, GE stock has soared 115% and is up 21% in 2010 (second only to Boeing (BA) among Dow stocks).
Wall Street’s consensus estimates call for $1.00 EPS in 2010 for GE. With an annual dividend of $.40 per share, GE would have a dividend payout ratio of 40%. In 2006, GE’s dividend payout ratio was 46% and in 2007 it was 47%. With EPS expected to climb to $1.22 per share in 2011, a more modest 41% target dividend payout ratio would result in a dividend increase of 25% to $.50 per share. While 25% is a significant increase to their dividend payment, it may take such a bold move to win back dividend investors who are still smarting from last year’s huge dividend cut.

GE: Don't call it a comeback
Has Jeff Immelt finally made General Electric investors forget the legendary Jack Welch?

That's a stretch -- investors can no longer count on GE beating estimates and posting double-digit earnings growth in good times and bad.
But the current GE (GE, Fortune 500) CEO -- and the company's shareholders -- finally have a lot to smile about.

GE, which was the second-worst performer in the Dow last year, falling nearly 7%, has staged a remarkable turnaround. The stock is up 20% in 2010, the second-best Dow component behind Boeing (BA, Fortune 500).
Is the rally justified? Perhaps.

General Electric Is A Buy
After a decade of disaster, the past 12 months have finally given General Electric shareholders something to crow about. The industrial megalith has seen its shares rise 79% in that time, and recent momentum is highly encouraging for GE longs; GE rose 4.2% last week, making it the best performing stock on the Dow Jones industrial average.

This rebound, however, has been a long time coming. Over the past decade GE shares are down 61%, badly lagging the S&P 500 Index, which is down 19% in that span. Along the way GE did the sacrosanct and cut its dividend last February in order to hang on to its AAA credit rating. Despite slashing the dividend by 68%, Standard & Poor's ultimately downgraded GE debt to AA+.

General Electric: Up 10% Since Last Thursday
General Electric (GE) has had a pretty good couple of days.

Since last Thursday, the stock has gained more than 10%, which is a big move for GE. The move has propelled GE to its highest level since late 2008, and it has made a big impact on the S&P 500 given its size.
General Electric's high in 2007 was $42.15, and the stock is still 57% below that level even after its recent gains.

Recent News: Fed Cash, Buy Rating, Dow Rally, Immelt on Leadership, and GE buying in India

GE Eschews - Or Does It Seek? - Access To Fed Cash
How can you tell when General Electric is prevaricating about the status of its capital position? Answer: when you can see its CFO’s lips moving. On Friday, the conglomerate’s finance chief admitted the company had reviewed the way the Federal Reserve was conducting its purchase of commercial paper. Then quickly insisted that GE was capable of completely funding itself, and would have no need to seek recourse to a government buyer-of-last-resort funding instument...

General Electric "buy," target price reduced
Analyst Stephen A O’Neil of Hilliard Lyons maintains his "buy" rating on General Electric Co (GE), while reducing his estimates for the company. The target price has been reduced from $30 to $25....

General Electric (GE) Not Participating In Today's Rally
For some reason General Electric is not participating in today's 600 point rally. Shares of GE are down 4% today to $20.63. GE did rise 13% on Friday, so it could have something to do with that....

GE’s Jeff Immelt on leadership renewal
Former Harvard MBA Jeff Immelt just delighted a packed conference hall (actually a big tent) with his observations about the need for leaders to renew themselves. “You’ve got to be able to do this,” he said. “Leadership is really a journey into yourself. I take every criticism personally, I think about them, and I go to bed at night thinking: ‘Oh God, what a failure I am.’ And then I wake up in the morning and I say: ‘Hello, handsome!’ ”...

What Credit Crunch? GE wants to buy in India
Even as the financial world seems to be crumbling and General Electric’s profits are headed south, the company may be looking for acquisitions in India. The other day my colleague Mehul Srivastava and I met with GE India boss Tejpreet Chopra. He sketched out an ambitious plan to boost the company’s revenues in the country to $8 billion by 2010 or 2011, from $2.6 billion today. “There will be some element of acquisitions in meeting our (sales) targets,” Chopra said...

Recent Analyst Ratings (Newratings.com)

- General Electric downgraded to "long term buy" - update (6/21/2007)


- General Electric "buy" (6/20/2007)


- General Electric "overweight," estimates revised (6/1/2007)


- General Electric "buy" (5/23/2007)


- General Electric "overweight," target price raised - update (5/22/2007)


Note: In the period of 5/21/2007 through 6/29/2007 GE's share price has increased $1.12. The period of time reflects the time that these analyst reports came out.