GE 1Q Earnings Rise 2 Percent
Friday April 13, 11:26 am ET
General Electric 1st-Quarter Earnings Rise 2 Percent on Rising Infrastructure Sales
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- General Electric Co. posted first-quarter earnings of $4.5 billion Friday, up 2 percent from the same period in 2006, helped by rising infrastructure sales.
The diversified manufacturing, media and financial services conglomerate also said that its results were dogged by weak performance in its health care, GE money -- including loans to people with less than stellar credit -- industrial and NBC units.
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The Fairfield-based company reported per-share earnings of 44 cents, which was in line with estimates by analysts polled by Thomson Financial.
Revenue of $40.2 billion for the quarter was up by 6 percent from the same period last year.
"It was a solid first quarter despite a few headwinds," GE chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt told investor analysts in a conference call Friday morning.
GE has made a series of acquisitions and divestitures in recent months in an attempt to shed slow-growth businesses and focus on faster-growth areas like energy, oil and gas equipment, rail engines, health care technology, finance, and water processing technology, including desalination. A Saudi firm is reportedly putting together a bid of as much as $12 billion for GE's plastics division, which has struggled since 2004.
The company's infrastructure business rose 18 percent in the first quarter, from $10.1 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2006 to $11.9 billion this year. Profit was nearly $2.2 billion, up from $1.7 billion in the first quarter of 2006.
"Infrastructure and Commercial Finance had strong quarters, and combined with the continued turnaround at NBC Universal, we delivered another quarter of double-digit earnings-per share growth," Immelt said.
In February, Immelt named NBC chief Jeff Zucker as president and CEO of NBC Universal, placing him in charge of a stable of networks including USA, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, Sci Fi and Telemundo. The company also owns the Universal theme parks in Florida and California.
NBC's broadcast network tumbled from first to fourth over the past few years, but has shown a few signs of life with critical successes recently. It remains atop the ratings in morning and evening news and in late-night entertainment.
Shares of GE rose 22 cents to $35.40 in late morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
GE reported earnings growth of about 2 percent in the three months ended March 31 that was pulled down by a nearly $20 million drop in profits in its industrial segment.
Revenue in the quarter for the industrial business dropped from $8.14 billion to $7.4 billion, with profit down to $481 million from $600 million.
GE said it expects second-quarter per-share earnings of between 52 cents and 54 cents and reaffirmed its previous guidance for per-share earnings for the year at between $2.18 to $2.23.
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