GE Leading Conglomerates in 2012, Set For Highest Close of Year

General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) is exhibiting a pattern which might not have seemed possible at the start of June.  If the 2% gain to $20.60 holds up this Friday, GE will be closing at a year high.  The absolute high was listed as $21.00 back on March 28  but the closing price was only $20.01.  Since that date we have also seen a $0.17 dividend paid out from the conglomerate.

The consensus analyst price target is $22.50 for General Electric and that implies some 9% upside for investors if the analysts are correct.  And do not forget about that 3.4% dividend yield either.

What has happened is that GE Capital is now paying a dividend to the company. GE has so far managed to win over the challenges of Europe and has been able to escape the woes of a slowing China, India, and Latin America. Another development is that GE is just now truly insulated from any single market or any single business segment.  North America seems to be holding up as well and the company disclosed that its Ecomagination business has now reached $105 billion.

It is hard to imagine that GE is set to close at a high for the last year. Still, the tape doesn’t lie.  At $20.60, GE’s 52-week range is $ 14.02 to $21.00 and GE is up 17% year to date.

As far as other conglomerates, here is how GE’s peers have performed. United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) is up over 3% today but shares are up only 4.3% year to date. 3M Co. (NYSE: MMM) is up 2.3% so far today and shares are up 10.6% year to date.  With GE’s market cap at $218 billion versus almost $62 billion for 3M and $68.5 billion for United Tech, this just makes the math that much more impressive.

JON C. OGG