Shares of General Electric Co. GE, 6.42% climbed 2.0% in premarket trading Tuesday, after the industrial conglomerate, which is planning to split into three independent companies, reported big second-quarter profit and revenue beats and surprise positive free cash flow, while continuing to provide a somewhat downbeat full-year outlook.
The net loss narrowed to 78 cents a share from $1.08 a year ago, while adjusted earnings per share, which excludes nonrecurring items, more than tripled to 78 cents from 22 cents, more than double the FactSet consensus of 37 cents. Total revenue grew 2.2% to $18.65 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $17.46 billion. Free cash flow slipped to positive $162 million from $199 million, but beat the FactSet consensus of negative $806.4 million. Among GE’s business segments, Aviation, Healthcare and Power beat revenue expectations while Renewable Energy fell a bit shy. “We continue to trend toward the low end of our 2022 outlook on all metrics except cash, which is lower due to timing of working capital and Renewable Energy-related orders,” said Chief Executive Larry Culp. The stock has tumbled 15.2% over the past three months through Monday, while the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.84% has lost 5.0%.