General Electric (NYSE: GE) stock is up 3.47% in early trading after the company delivered its first-quarter earnings report. The company delivered revenue of $16.1 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of 82 cents per share, a 55% year-over-year (YOY) increase.
Those numbers need a little context. This was the last earnings report for General Electric as a conglomerate. In early April, the company spun off its energy unit, GE Vernova Inc. (NYSE: GEV). However, this earnings report still included results from the Vernova business unit.
Meet GE Aerospace
In the future, the company will report earnings as GE Aerospace with the same GE ticker symbol. GE Aerospace will be one of the top aerospace stocks and will house two business units: Commercial Engines & Services (CES) and Defense & Propulsion Technologies (DPT).
When you look at just the GE Aerospace numbers, there's still much for investors to like. The combined Aerospace unit delivered adjusted revenue of $8.1 billion, a 15% YOY increase. The Aerospace division also delivered an operating profit margin of 19.1% and $1.7 billion in free cash flow (FCF).
Aerospace orders totaled $11 billion in the quarter, a 34% YOY increase. It was also $2.9 billion higher than adjusted revenue.
For 2024, GE Aerospace raised its prior guidance for operating profit from $6.0 billion and $6.5 billion to $6.2 billion and $6.6 billion. The company also projects earnings to be between $3.80 and $4.05 per share.
At the company's Investor Day in March, the company forecasted $10 billion in operating profit by 2028 and a shareholder-friendly capital allocation framework that includes $15 billion in share buybacks and a 250% dividend increase, which the company initiated in April.
Will Positive Earnings Drive GE Aerospace Higher?
Heading into earnings, GE stock was up more than 50% in the last 12 months. That had many analysts talking about a stock that was priced for perfection. While many analysts were reiterating their Buy (or Overweight) ratings the price targets were coming down. However, it's important to note that many of those lower price targets were still higher than the consensus price target of $160.07.
GE stock gapped higher in early April after the dividend announcement. Since then, the stock has found resistance around the $157 level. The earnings report pushed the stock above this level. The question will be if it can hold these gains and make $157 a new level of support.
The company's results may not qualify as perfection, but it may be close enough to confirm the bullish sentiment in the stock. As of this writing, the GE analyst ratings on MarketBeat don't show any change in analyst sentiment. But this will be something for investors to watch in the coming days and weeks.
