I would be very wary. GE has gotten the majority of its profits from its financing arm, which has generated a lot of suspiciously smooth earnings. My guess is that they are heavily into derivatives. The downside of derivatives in the past three or fours years is that it took a lot of risk taking to generate any returns. GE stock could go the way of the Detroit 3, and end up in the low single digits.
Note that GE doesn't get the best finance guys - they get the leftovers who couldn't make it to Wall Street. My impression is that these people have a serious case of Wall Street hero worship - they're like the stereotypical small town yokels who get duped by the big city slickers. The odds are good that whatever bum assets the banks had, GE has worse assets and more of those assets.
“I would be very wary. GE has gotten the majority of its profits from its financing arm, which has generated a lot of suspiciously smooth earnings. My guess is that they are heavily into derivatives. The downside of derivatives in the past three or fours years is that it took a lot of risk taking to generate any returns. GE stock could go the way of the Detroit 3, and end up in the low single digits.”
You are just speculating. The difference between GE and banks is that unlike banks, GE actually makes and sells things. They have multiple income streams from a variety of market leading businesses. Its probably the best type of company to survive in the current environment.