General Electric (NYSE:GE) Holdings Trimmed by California Public Employees Retirement System

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its holdings in General Electric (NYSE:GE) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,862,728 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 147,410 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.17% of General Electric worth $310,684,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of GE. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in General Electric by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,815,318 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $14,980,297,000 after acquiring an additional 410,172 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of General Electric by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 43,322,827 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $8,181,801,000 after purchasing an additional 898,296 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 22,587,961 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $4,244,676,000 after purchasing an additional 156,272 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of General Electric during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,375,439,000. Finally, Jennison Associates LLC grew its position in General Electric by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 7,878,650 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $1,314,080,000 after purchasing an additional 106,891 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on GE shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of General Electric from $235.00 to $228.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 2nd. Citigroup lifted their price objective on General Electric from $216.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America upped their target price on General Electric from $200.00 to $225.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on General Electric from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on General Electric from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $211.31.

General Electric Stock Performance

Shares of GE opened at $199.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $214.29 billion, a PE ratio of 33.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.81. General Electric has a one year low of $133.99 and a one year high of $214.21. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $201.52 and its 200 day moving average price is $186.50.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.32 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.27. General Electric had a return on equity of 22.19% and a net margin of 14.31%. As a group, analysts expect that General Electric will post 5.4 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.36 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.44 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.72%. General Electric’s payout ratio is 24.04%.

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.