Shares of General Electric Co. GE, +0.74% dropped 3.2% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the industrial conglomerate reported third-quarter profit that fell below expectations while revenue beat, and free cash flow (FCF) that topped $1 billion to beat forecasts by wide margin. The company swung to a net per-share loss of 21 cents, after earnings per share of $1.08 in the year-ago period. Excluding nonrecurring items, adjusted EPS fell to 35 cents from 53 cents, missing the FactSet consensus of 47 cents. FCF fell 11.5% to $1.19 billion, but was well above expectations of $284.5 million. Revenue grew 2.8% to $19.08 billion, above the FactSet consensus of $18.4 billion. Among GE’s business segments, GE Aerospace revenue jumped 24% to $6.71 billion, beating the FactSet consensus of $6.55 billion; GE Healthcare revenue rose 6% to $4.61 billion, above expectations of $4.52 billion; Power revenue fell 12% to $3.53 billion, below expectations of $4.06 billion; and Renewable Energy revenue dropped 15% to $3.59 billion, but topped expectations of $3.46 billion. For 2022, GE expects adjusted EPS of $2.40 to $2.80, surrounding the FactSet consensus of $2.66, and FCF of $4.5 billion, above expectations of $4.2 billion. The stock has gained 7.3% over the past three months through Monday, while the SPDR Industrial Select Sector ETF XLI, +1.33% has slipped 1.1% and the S&P 500 SPX, +1.19% has lost 4.3%.
