GE Stock Posts Weekly Gain but Can't Shake Ranking as Dow's Worst

Industrials

Published: March 10, 2018 9:55 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:34 am

The old saying about a rising tide lifting all boats certainly applied to General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) stock last week. The Dow Jones industrials index regained all and then some of the prior week’s loss, and GE shares jumped by 5.8% last week, well above the 3.5% Dow gain.

The company has to string several weeks like that together if it wants to escape its position as the worst performing Dow stock for the year to date. The stock has dropped 14.4% so far in 2018. The second-worst Dow stock so far this year is Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG), which is down 12.6%, followed by Exxon Mobil Corp. (NYSE: XOM), which is 10.9% lower. Then comes Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT), down 10.2%, and McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD), 8.7% lower.

The Dow Jones industrial average added nearly 850 points over the past week and closed at 25,355.74, up nearly 3.5% for the week.

GE got something of a tailwind from Boeing when Hawaiian Airlines ordered 10 Boeing 787 Dreamliners. The planes will be equipped with GEnx engines.

On Tuesday the company announced a new energy storage platform it calls GE Reservoir. The huge batteries store electricity generated by wind and solar for use when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining. The market for this type of storage is forecast to grow by 14% annually through 2025, but there is plenty of competition from the likes of Tesla and others.

Reuters published an exclusive report on Friday claiming that GE is looking to sell the electrical engineering business it bought for $3.2 billion in 2011. That also gave the stock a boost to end the week.

GE shares closed at $14.94 on Friday, in a 52-week trading range of $13.95 to $30.54. The 12-month consensus price target is $18.17, down $0.19 week over week, with the low target at $13 and the high target at $36.

ALSO READ: Boeing Remains the Top Dow Stock

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