General Electric Q3 Profit Beats Views

reported upbeat earnings for the third quarter on Friday. The Fairfield, Connecticut-based company reported a quarterly profit of $2.51 billion, or $0.25 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $3.54 billion, or $0.35 per share. Its operating earnings came in at $0.32 per share for the recent quarter, while industrial operating plus verticals earnings came in at $0.29 per share. Its revenue declined 1 percent to $31.68 billion, while industrial plus verticals sales came in at $27.9 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.26 per share on revenue of $28.57 billion. The average estimate among 130 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.27 per share and revenue of $28.62 billion. The company's industrial operating profit climbed 5 percent to $4.5 billion for the quarter, while revenue slipped 1 percent to $26.2 billion. Revenue in GE's aviation segment gained 5 percent in the quarter, while revenue in power and water division rose 1 percent. Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO said, "In a volatile environment, GE performed well this quarter, with industrial profit growth, organic revenue growth, and margins up 100 basis points. Our GE Capital exit plan is ahead of plan and we expect GE Capital dividends to the parent of ~$3 billion for 2015. This week we announced the sale of $30 billion of commercial lending businesses, bringing our total signed deals to date to $126 billion. We also expect to launch the Synchrony share exchange next week, which will significantly reduce the amount of GE stock outstanding. Through the exchange and dividends, we are on track to return ~$30 billion to shareowners in 2015." GE shares fell 0.32 percent to $27.94 in pre-market trading.