Industrials

General Electric Stuck as DJIA's Biggest Loser in 2017

Paul Ausick

Published: September 30, 2017 10:05 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 7:38 am

General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) dropped about 2.8% from its share price last week and easily maintained its ranking as the worst performing equity on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) index. For the year to date, GE stock has lost 23.48%.

This is GE’s eleventh consecutive 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 12.6% for the year, and third-worst Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), now down 9.2%. Only seven of the 30 Dow stocks have traded down so far this year.

On Monday, GE announced the sale of its industrial solutions business to Swiss engineering firm ABB for $2.6 billion. The division was put up for sale under former CEO Jeff Immelt, who retired at the end of June. This deal had been reported in the prior week and was no surprise.

What was a surprise was a threat to GE’s 2015 $2.5 billion deal to sell diesel locomotives to Indian Railways. Under the terms of the deal, GE will manufacture the locomotives in India and deliver 1,000 a year for 11 years. The country’s new railways minister said earlier in September that he wants to scrap the deal for the diesel engines and upgrade the country’s railway system to electric locomotives.

The ministry said it was discussing with GE the possibility that the company could build the electric locomotives, but GE currently does not manufacture electric locomotives.

GE’s shares closed up about 0.3% Friday, at $24.18 in a 52-week range of $23.58 to $32.38. The consensus 12-month price target for the stock remained at $28.50, a drop of seven cents in the past week. The price target range is $21 to $36.