Shares of General Electric surged more than 7 percent on Monday, after the company announced it would replace CEO John Flannery with former Danaher chief Lawrence Culp.
Here’s what three experts had to say about the stock and CEO shake-up:
- “Under Culp, [Danaher] reinvented themselves into health care, into the exact businesses that we’re talking about divesting right now. And one half of the analysts are saying we didn’t move fast enough to divest health care, announced in June or July and we still have it now, there’s a pretty good chance Culp’s going to keep it. We’re going to wind up celebrating the guy who didn’t sell what could be a real gem,” said Jeff Sonnenfeld Senior Associate Dean of the Yale School of Management,” said Jeff Sonnenfeld senior associate dean of the Yale School of Management.
- Jim Corridore of CFRA explained: “Certainly, it’s going to take some more time to identify a strategic direction. He gets a chance to reset the company. Maybe health care is not going to get spun off now. Maybe some of the parts that were going to be sold make more sense today. He gets a chance to look at the company. That takes several months right there. And then to start implementing his vision takes up to a year. So it’s going to be a while. But, in the meantime, they can set reasonable financial expectations and they can meet those expectations, which will give investors and analysts confidence to know that they’re on the right track.”
- “From my perspective, it’s too early to step up and buy this stock, yet. And usually when you get a change in management like this, you get an initial reaction. And then, if you go back, you see that stock usually corrects further before you find that ultimate low. And I suspect that’ll probably be the template for GE, too.” said Craig Johnson of Piper Jaffray.
Bottom line: Appointing a new CEO is a great move for the struggling company, but only time will tell if it can bounce back from its $500 billion loss over the last 18 years.