Crazy or Gutsy? The Call for $2 on General Electric (GE)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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GE LogoWe rarely have time to watch video interviews from around the web early in the morning, but what choice is there when someone is calling for General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) to be worth a mere $2.00 per share.  Charles Ortel, managing director of Newport Value Partners, gave an interview with Aaron Task at Yahoo! supporting this thesis.

For starters, he noted that the conglomerate has a mere $2.8 billion in tangible common equity as of March 31, 2009.  The Buffett investment was not noted as a positive.

This firm has been a long-time bear in GE, otherwise we might not have ever considered even noting this one.  It first recommended a short at $38.87.  Ortel outlined the SEC Wells Notices, and noted the trouble being far more widespread than just GE Capital.  You can watch the video if you choose, because Ortel sees only downside and said he would not want Jeff Immelt’s job ahead.

Ortel has many other reasons he is still very bearish.  The FULL VIDEO is here.  If GE heads back to $2.00, we’d hate to consider how low the market would be pulled down with it.  So far, Wall Street is not buying this thesis.  We have shares trading up about 0.5% at $11.07 with an hour until the open after closing at $11.01 yesterday.

JON C. OGG
JULY 8, 2009

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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