General Electric Co. (GE) Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt (Insider Trades) purchased 100,000 shares for $28.07 per share on May 15. The total transaction was $2,807,000.
General Electric, a global digital industrial company encompassing a wide range of products from energy-saving technology to digital services, has a market cap of $243.498 billion.
Immelt acquired 412,500 shares in six transactions since 2013. The aforementioned transaction is Immelt’s sole insider trade with the company year to date, but four other General Electric insiders have increased their holdings so far in 2017. Director William Beattie (Insider Trades) purchased 16,000 shares for $28.05 per share on May 15.
The total volume of General Electric insider purchases spiked to 883,500 in 2015, from 168,900 shares in 2014, but it decreased to 263,589 shares purchased in 2016. For more information about insider trades with General Electric, click here.
The company reported total revenues of $27.66 billion for the first quarter ended March 31. Net earnings for the quarter amounted to $619 million, or 7 cents per share of common stock. In comparison, for the corresponding quarter of 2016, the company reported total revenues of $27.85 billion, and net loss of $61 million, or 1 cent per share of common stock. Immelt commented that the first quarter was a “strong start to the year with organic revenues,” and the company returned “$4.4 billion to shareowners through dividends and buyback.” Immelt explained that industrial operating cash flows were “negative $1.6 billion” due to an “increase in working capital and timing of billings” of the company’s equipment and service contracts.
Since 2012, General Electric’s annual revenue decreased 4.3%, but it follows an increasing trend line, as does the company’s annual net income for the same time period. For more financial statistics on General Electric, click here.
At the company’s first annual shareholders meeting for 2017 held on April 26, the company alluded to 2017 framework of industrial operations and vertical earnings per share of $1.60 to $1.70. In 2016, industrial operations and vertical earnings per share increased 14%, and General Electric investors received a dividend yield of 3%.
According to GuruFocus.com information, General Electric has a business predictability rank of 1 out of 5 stars. For more information about business predictability rank, click here.
Ken Fisher (Trades, Portfolio) and Steven Cohen (Trades, Portfolio) reduced their stakes in the company during the first quarter while Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) and Joel Greenblatt (Trades, Portfolio) increased their stakes. Fisher and Cohen reduced their stakes by 29.65% and 100%.
In the three previous quarters, Fisher increased his stake by at least 140,000 shares. Cohen, on the other hand, bought a stake in the company in the previous quarter for $30.31 per share and sold out all shares in the first quarter for $30.20 per share. Simons and Greenblatt increased their stakes in the first quarter; Simons bought 1,409,468 shares after selling out all 830,264 shares for an average per share price of $30.2 in the third quarter of 2016, and Greenblatt purchased 97,835 shares. For more information about guru trades with General Electric, click here.
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