GE Reports Income Off 6% in Quarter: Healthcare Group Gains Over Prior Period
By John Schmid, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Jul. 12–General Electric Co. reported Friday that second-quarter net income fell 6% while its Healthcare division improved from the prior quarter.
The industrial, finance and media conglomerate said profit from continuing operations fell to $5.39 billion from $5.61 billion a year earlier. On a per-share basis, earnings were unchanged at 54 cents.
Those figures exclude discontinued operations at a company that’s been in an extended period of restructuring. Including discontinued operations, net income fell to $5.07 billion, or 51 cents a share, from $5.38 billion, or 52 cents, a year earlier. Sales rose 11% to $46.9 billion.
GE Chairman and chief executive Jeff Immelt repeatedly said growth in foreign markets offset weakness at home in the United States.
“We believe this is a solid performance in a difficult environment,” Immelt told investors in a conference call.
GE, which ranks No. 6 on the Fortune 500 list, saw its shares rise 2 cents to $27.66 after the earnings were announced.
Among recent developments, GE announced this week that it might divest its entire consumer and industrial unit, which includes appliances and light bulbs. On Friday, it said it had agreed to sell GE Money’s Japanese consumer-finance businesses to Japan’s Shinsei Bank Ltd. for $5.4 billion. And earlier this month, it announced a joint venture involving its Glendale-based residential water-equipment group and Pentair Inc.’s residential water subsidiary in Brookfield.
The cooling U.S. economy compelled GE to lay off several hundred Healthcare division employees in Waukesha in the first quarter. The company never specified how many jobs it cut, only saying it was fewer than 400. In April, the company stunned Wall Street when it reported a nearly 6% drop in first-quarter earnings and cut its earnings outlook for the full year.
GE Healthcare, which has major operations in the Milwaukee area, reported an 11% increase in sales to $4.49 billion in the quarter while earnings rose 8% to $747 million.
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