Appleton Partners Inc. MA Decreases Stock Holdings in General Electric (NYSE:GE)

Appleton Partners Inc. MA decreased its holdings in shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE) by 1.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 3,677 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after selling 70 shares during the period. Appleton Partners Inc. MA’s holdings in General Electric were worth $645,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in General Electric in the 4th quarter valued at $1,193,159,000. WCM Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter worth $520,488,000. Lone Pine Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter worth $268,519,000. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in shares of General Electric by 62.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 4,881,752 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $623,058,000 after purchasing an additional 1,873,327 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in General Electric by 11,947.8% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,576,570 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $201,218,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563,484 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on GE. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on General Electric from $165.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 24th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of General Electric in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. StockNews.com began coverage on General Electric in a report on Monday, April 29th. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on General Electric from $165.00 to $192.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 29th. Finally, Argus lifted their price objective on General Electric from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $177.27.

General Electric Trading Up 1.1 %

GE opened at $164.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $180.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 1.23. General Electric has a 52 week low of $82.11 and a 52 week high of $170.80. The business’s 50 day moving average is $161.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $149.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.17 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $16.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $15.25 billion. General Electric had a return on equity of 12.54% and a net margin of 5.05%. The firm’s revenue was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.27 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that General Electric will post 3.99 EPS for the current year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 15th were given a dividend of $0.28 per share. This is a positive change from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. General Electric’s payout ratio is 36.72%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 45,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, May 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $162.82, for a total value of $7,377,211.38. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 112,958 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,391,821.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.66% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.