Franklin Resources Inc. Purchases 973,135 Shares of General Electric (NYSE:GE)

Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in General Electric (NYSE:GE - Free Report) by 206.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,444,466 shares of the conglomerate's stock after buying an additional 973,135 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned 0.13% of General Electric worth $278,247,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in GE. Tsfg LLC lifted its holdings in General Electric by 12.8% during the 3rd quarter. Tsfg LLC now owns 485 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $92,000 after buying an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 37.9% during the 2nd quarter. Macroview Investment Management LLC now owns 211 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Strategic Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 2.6% during the 3rd quarter. Strategic Advisors LLC now owns 2,267 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $428,000 after purchasing an additional 58 shares during the last quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mitchell Mcleod Pugh & Williams Inc. now owns 6,299 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $1,188,000 after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allegheny Financial Group LTD lifted its position in shares of General Electric by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. Allegheny Financial Group LTD now owns 4,489 shares of the conglomerate's stock worth $714,000 after purchasing an additional 61 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 74.77% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on GE shares. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of General Electric from $198.00 to $216.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price objective on shares of General Electric from $210.00 to $200.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Melius Research lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $194.00 to $202.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $180.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 23rd. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on shares of General Electric from $212.00 to $235.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fourteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $201.93.

General Electric Trading Up 0.7 %

GE stock traded up $1.18 on Friday, hitting $166.01. 4,957,058 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,129,265. General Electric has a twelve month low of $95.92 and a twelve month high of $194.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 1.13 and a quick ratio of 0.85. The business's fifty day moving average is $180.30 and its two-hundred day moving average is $172.44. The stock has a market capitalization of $179.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.17.

General Electric (NYSE:GE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 22nd. The conglomerate reported $1.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.13 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $9.84 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.02 billion. General Electric had a net margin of 11.48% and a return on equity of 18.93%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 5.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that General Electric will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current year.

General Electric Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 27th will be paid a dividend of $0.28 per share. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. General Electric's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 19.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at General Electric

In other news, SVP Russell Stokes sold 15,550 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.29, for a total value of $2,772,409.50. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 148,857 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,539,714.53. This trade represents a 9.46 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Riccardo Procacci sold 7,000 shares of General Electric stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $181.13, for a total transaction of $1,267,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 13,289 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,407,036.57. This represents a 34.50 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.66% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About General Electric

General Electric Company, doing business as GE Aerospace, designs and produces commercial and defense aircraft engines, integrated engine components, electric power, and mechanical aircraft systems. It also offers aftermarket services to support its products. The company operates in the United States, Europe, China, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Africa.