General Electric (NYSE:GE) Short Interest Down 8.3% in January

General Electric (NYSE:GE) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in the month of January. As of January 31st, there was short interest totalling 11,410,000 shares, a decrease of 8.3% from the January 15th total of 12,440,000 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 5,230,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 2.2 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Toth Financial Advisory Corp purchased a new position in General Electric in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. purchased a new position in shares of General Electric during the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. O Brien Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of General Electric during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC increased its holdings in General Electric by 133.3% in the 4th quarter. New Age Alpha Advisors LLC now owns 147 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 84 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Peterson Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in General Electric in the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. 74.77% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on General Electric from $190.00 to $210.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of General Electric from $225.00 to $250.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of General Electric from $215.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Redburn Atlantic initiated coverage on shares of General Electric in a research report on Tuesday. They set a “buy” rating and a $250.00 target price for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of General Electric in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, General Electric currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $211.31.

General Electric Stock Performance

Shares of GE traded up $1.67 on Tuesday, reaching $209.94. 4,395,356 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,586,972. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $183.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $179.67. The stock has a market cap of $225.33 billion, a PE ratio of 35.05, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.22. General Electric has a 52-week low of $118.13 and a 52-week high of $212.19. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.88.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, January 23rd. The conglomerate reported $1.32 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.27. General Electric had a return on equity of 22.19% and a net margin of 14.31%. On average, analysts forecast that General Electric will post 5.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be given a $0.36 dividend. This is a positive change from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.44 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. General Electric’s payout ratio is currently 18.70%.

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.