First Financial Bank Trust Division Decreases Stock Holdings in General Electric (NYSE:GE)

First Financial Bank Trust Division lessened its holdings in General Electric (NYSE:GE) by 2.0% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,326 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 110 shares during the quarter. First Financial Bank Trust Division’s holdings in General Electric were worth $888,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of GE. Lantz Financial LLC lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 1.9% during the 2nd quarter. Lantz Financial LLC now owns 3,718 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $591,000 after buying an additional 70 shares during the last quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC boosted its stake in General Electric by 6.8% in the second quarter. Verus Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,525 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $242,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. TIAA Trust National Association boosted its stake in General Electric by 1.3% in the second quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 46,315 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $7,364,000 after acquiring an additional 593 shares in the last quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. grew its holdings in shares of General Electric by 12.2% during the second quarter. Adell Harriman & Carpenter Inc. now owns 1,293 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 141 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of General Electric by 23.5% in the 2nd quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,392 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $380,000 after purchasing an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target on General Electric from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Melius Research raised their price objective on shares of General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research report on Tuesday, October 22nd. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of General Electric from $201.00 to $225.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Electric has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $201.47.

Insider Activity

In other General Electric news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.29, for a total transaction of $2,772,409.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 148,857 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,539,714.53. This trade represents a 9.46 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were 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 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. Company insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

General Electric Price Performance

Shares of GE traded up $1.80 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $168.59. The company had a trading volume of 3,663,280 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,084,345. The company has a market capitalization of $182.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.17. General Electric has a 12-month low of $98.92 and a 12-month high of $194.80. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $174.81 and a 200-day simple moving average of $173.03. The company has a current ratio of 1.13, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.13 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $9.84 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.02 billion. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.82 EPS. Research analysts expect that General Electric will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 27th. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.68%.

About General Electric

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.