GE Revenue, Profit Expected to Rise -- Earnings Preview

   By Ted Mann 
 

General Electric Co. is scheduled to report financial results for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 on Friday before the market opens. Here's what you need to know.

EARNINGS FORECAST: Earnings of 55 cents a share is the median of estimates compiled by Thomson Reuters, up from 53 cents a share in the same period last year.

REVENUE FORECAST: Wall Street analysts project revenue of $42.12 billion, up from $40.38 billion reported by the Fairfield, Conn.-based conglomerate one year earlier.

 
   WHAT TO WATCH 
 

OIL: GE's $17 billion Oil & Gas business was to be a key engine of growth for the company. But with the collapse of crude oil prices, it is entering a period of retrenchment. The company warned investors last month that revenue and profit at the unit could fall as much as 5% as the industry contracts. J.P. Morgan has estimated that as much as 25% of GE's industrial revenue is exposed to oil and gas. GE officials have said aggressive cost-reductions are coming, but be on the lookout for warnings of repricing of backlogged orders, which would be a sign that damage from the oil drop will be more severe than anticipated.

ALSTOM: Chief Executive Jeff Immelt says the top priority for the company this year is the careful integration of the energy assets it bought from France's Alstom SA. That $17 billion deal is slated to close in mid-2015. Negotiations continue over elements of the deal, including what Alstom executives say is about $464 million in "additional proceeds" from GE in exchange for continuing to use the Alstom brand. GE says it is slated to get even better synergies than anticipated from combining the two businesses, and the integration is crucial to helping hit a key target: raising the share of GE's earnings to 75% from industrial businesses by 2016.

THE DOLLAR: Investors will be looking for guidance on how GE will cope with the effect of the strengthening dollar on its sales overseas. The U.S. currency has appreciated against the euro since GE reported guidance in December, and the euro has fallen below the most recent assumptions for some of GE's industrial peers, including Honeywell International Inc., Rockwell Automation Corp. and 3M Co., according to Bernstein Research. GE has roughly 17% of sales exposed to variations in the euro, Bernstein estimated, though that figure could be inflated based on the inclusion of some non-euro markets in the Middle East, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Still, the company has nearly half of its sales in the U.S., and hedges for currency fluctuations.

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