Natixis Advisors L.P. Purchases 54,730 Shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE)

Natixis Advisors L.P. grew its position in General Electric (NYSE:GE) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 506,206 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,730 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors L.P.’s holdings in General Electric were worth $64,606,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Halpern Financial Inc. increased its position in shares of General Electric by 968.4% during the 4th quarter. Halpern Financial Inc. now owns 203 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 184 shares during the last quarter. Criterion Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $27,000. CGC Financial Services LLC increased its position in shares of General Electric by 90.2% during the 4th quarter. CGC Financial Services LLC now owns 232 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $30,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Capital Analysts LLC increased its position in shares of General Electric by 55.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital Analysts LLC now owns 243 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 87 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bfsg LLC bought a new position in shares of General Electric during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 74.77% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on GE shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on General Electric from $165.00 to $192.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com assumed coverage on General Electric in a report on Monday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of General Electric in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Vertical Research assumed coverage on General Electric in a report on Thursday, April 4th. They set a “buy” rating and a $160.00 price objective for the company. Finally, TheStreet upgraded General Electric from a “c+” rating to a “b+” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 23rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, General Electric presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $172.29.

General Electric Stock Performance

GE stock traded up $1.47 during trading on Friday, reaching $164.11. The company had a trading volume of 3,967,531 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,942,054. The company has a market cap of $179.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.84 and a beta of 1.25. General Electric has a twelve month low of $77.93 and a twelve month high of $166.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.17. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $161.72 and a 200-day simple moving average of $137.50.

General Electric (NYSE:GE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 23rd. The conglomerate reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.65 by $0.17. General Electric had a net margin of 5.05% and a return on equity of 12.54%. The business had revenue of $16.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $15.25 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.27 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that General Electric will post 3.95 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 25th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 15th were paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.68%. This is a boost from General Electric’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.08. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 12th. General Electric’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.72%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Michael J. Holston sold 22,055 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $144.87, for a total value of $3,195,107.85. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 56,284 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,153,863.08. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.66% of the company’s stock.

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.