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General Electric (GE) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, General Electric (GE - Free Report) closed at $68.05, marking a +0.49% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.38%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.5%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.5%.

Heading into today, shares of the industrial conglomerate had lost 9.26% over the past month, lagging the Conglomerates sector's loss of 4.89% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.69% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from General Electric as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, General Electric is projected to report earnings of $0.39 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 2.5%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $18.07 billion, down 1.17% from the year-ago period.

GE's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.82 per share and revenue of $76.68 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +33.02% and +3.44%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for General Electric. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.39% lower within the past month. General Electric is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, General Electric currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.01. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.67, so we one might conclude that General Electric is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that GE has a PEG ratio of 3.43. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Diversified Operations was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.32 at yesterday's closing price.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 41, putting it in the top 17% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow GE in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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