Don’t Look Now, But GE Is Getting Somewhere
Key worry points heading into earnings ended up not being so troublesome, handing CEO Larry Culp a real victory.
Is that sunlight breaking through the clouds at GE?
Photographer: Loic Venance/AFP/Getty Images
General Electric Co.’s path to recovery is a long one, but the company no longer seems lost in the woods.
In releasing its third-quarter results on Wednesday, GE also raised its guidance for 2019 free cash flow and now anticipates its industrial businesses could bring in as much as $2 billion this year. That’s a $4 billion swing from GE’s worst-case scenario in its initial March forecast. There’s a fine line between setting a low bar and sandbagging the numbers, but GE’s rosier outlook is supported by signs of stabilization in its beleaguered power unit and there being less of a drag than anticipated from the transition of a supply-chain financing program to a third party. The aviation business was also able to largely offset the negative impact of the continued grounding of Boeing Co.’s 737 Max. Those were key worry points that ended up not being as worrisome.