General Electric Continues as DJIA’s Worst Stock of 2017

Even when General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) stock posts a weekly gain, as it did last week, the industrial giant ends up at the bottom of the pile of the 30 stocks that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average. GE stock added just under 1% last week, but shares remain down 18.42% for the year to date.

This is GE’s third straight week as the Dow’s worst performer. The company still has a big lead over the second worst stock, International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM), which is down 12.55% for the year, and Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), the third-worst stock, now down 11.13%.

Maybe the weekly bump was due to new CEO John Flannery who officially took over on Monday. Or maybe it was an analyst’s note on the recently completed acquisition of the oilfield services firm now known as Baker Hughes A GE Company (NYSE: BHGE).

James West at Evercore ISI said on Wednesday:

We continue to view the tie-up between GE [Oil & Gas] and [Baker Hughes] as one of the most transformative deals to take place in the oil service space in decades. The new entity should be considered an industry powerhouse with a full cycle portfolio of products and services, complementary cultures rooted in technological innovations, and a leading position at the forefront of the digital revolution.

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West isn’t the only GE cheerleader. Piper Jaffray’s Craig Johnson told CNBC:

I wouldn’t be selling here. I’d be looking for some sort of a relief rally … you look at a daily chart to bring it in to say where could this relief rally ultimately run up toward? It would be about $28, maybe $29, is where you could see that relief rally go.

Boris Schlossberg of BK Asset Management chimed in:

GE is going to be here to stay. It sports a 3.75 percent dividend. That alone should really attract a lot of value investors … I think GE as a long-term buy is probably an excellent position at this point.

GE’s shares closed up less than 0.1% Friday, at $25.78 in a 52-week range of $25.26 to $32.38. The consensus 12-month price target for the stock is $29.31.

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