The following is an excerpt from MarketWatch | October 19, 2012 | MarketWatch.com |
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — General Electric Co.’s latest results were unquestionably a disappointment. But do they dampen hopes for a dividend hike?
The company on Friday posted third-quarter operating earnings of 36 cents a share, hitting Wall Street targets.
Revenue, on the other hand, was $36.35 billion, up 2.8% from a year ago but nearly $600 million below expectations. Unfavorable currency rates, the result of a stronger dollar, lopped a hefty $1.1 billion off the top line. Read about GE’s latest quarter.
CEO Jeff Immelt didn’t offer much comfort, telling investors on a post-earnings conference call that 2013 is looking a lot like 2012, “with the big variable being the fiscal cliff.”
Of course, no one knows whether Congress will find a way around that cliff, a $600 billion budget austerity package that automatically kicks in at year-end and carries with it fears of another recession.
General Electric’s GE -3.42% revenue miss and cautious outlook combined to push its shares as much as 4% lower Friday and gave a nasty jolt to the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA -1.52% .
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