GE’s Forecast Misses Estimates Ahead of Historic Breakup


(Bloomberg) — General Electric Co. predicts profit this quarter will fall short of Wall Street’s expectations as the manufacturer continues to see a disparity between its growing aerospace operations and a recovering energy business.

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Adjusted earnings will be 60 to 65 cents a share, GE said Tuesday in a statement that also detailed fourth-quarter results. That missed the 70-cent average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The outlook offered a disappointing end to GE’s days as a conglomerate, as the 135-year-old company prepares to break up in early April. After spinning off its health-care operations in 2022, GE will separate the aerospace and energy businesses into standalone entities, culminating Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp’s multiyear effort to rescue the fallen manufacturing icon.

GE’s shares fell 7.4% as of 6:42 a.m. Tuesday before the start of regular trading in New York. The stock has soared 69% over the last 12 months, far outpacing the S&P 500 Index’s gain of roughly 22% in the same period.

GE Aerospace should produce as much as $6.5 billion in operating profit this year, even as the world’s largest jet-engine maker takes on about $600 million in costs as it becomes an independent company. That compares to about $6.1 billion in operating profit generated by the jet-engine division in 2023.

The company expects GE Aerospace to generate more than $5 billion in free cash flow and adjusted revenue growth of low-double digits or more.

The GE Vernova energy businesses this year should see as much as $35 billion in revenue and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin in the mid-single-digit range. Free cash flow at the business should be $700 million to $1.1 billion, it said.

Culp said in the statement that both sides of the business would deliver “further revenue, profit and free cash flow growth” this year.

Fourth-quarter 2023 free cash flow — a key measure for investors — was about $3 billion, slightly ahead of the $2.9 billion average of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Adjusted earnings were $1.03 per share in the period, more than the 91 cents expected by Wall Street.

(Updates to recast first paragraph, add new detail throughout)

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