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General Electric Co. (GE) executives will have little margin for error when they provide the outlook for the company's wide-ranging industrial units alongside first-quarter earnings on April 17.

It has been a year since the U.S. conglomerate shocked investors by missing profit expectations following a meltdown in its GE Capital finance unit during the last weeks of March 2008.

With GE Capital undergoing radical surgery since then through shrinkage and a new funding model, GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt aims to leverage operations ranging from aircraft engines to washing machines, oil and gas infrastructure, and media content to steer the company out of trouble.

Immelt is relying on the industrial units for nearly $16 billion in cash flow - and earnings growth of zero to 5% - to provide investors some relief in a year in which GE Capital is forecast to break even at best.

But the pressure on such targets, last affirmed in February, is intensifying amid weak outlooks from rivals with similar customers.

"We're a bit concerned that there could be (order) cancellations (and) that those really haven't been well-anticipated yet," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management, which owns a GE stake.

Ghriskey and others remain optimistic GE's revenue from maintenance and related services on products it already has sold can help it offset declining new-order rates and potential big-ticket cancellations. GE has said it expects services to account for up to 75% of industrial revenue this year, compared with 65% in 2007.

It also has forecast that its GE Capital finance arm will be able to eke out a meager first-quarter profit and break even for the full year even under "worst-case" economic conditions. But analysts are skeptical.

"It seems like we're headed for that worst case," Edward Jones analyst Matt Collins said. "That leaves you with what (GE) can do with industrial."

In GE's last companywide update, Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin told investors in February that several of its big infrastructure divisions had solid momentum heading into 2009.

In particular, he cited the energy infrastructure unit, which produces power-generation gear, describing it as likely "the strength of GE" in 2009. Sherin said at the time that falling oil prices could lead to some project delays or cancellations, but he added that maintenance and other services, and a strong order backlog, would more than make up for it.

The company also predicted profit growth in its technology infrastructure division, although it has made clear the poor economy will mute some of the gains. The division includes GE's aviation, health-care and transportation units.

Profit will be flat to down slightly at GE's NBC Universal media unit this year, GE has said, with Sherin noting in February that conditions remain "really tough" for media in general. Still, the company has said margins should benefit compared with 2008 because of the lack of the Beijing Olympics, which GE sponsored and NBC aired.

Regardless, some analysts say GE's industrial and nonfinance businesses appear to be holding up relatively well, at least within the context of the downturn.

"Nobody is immune from the global recession under way," said Collins, of Edward Jones. But "the good news is that GE has one of the best global infrastructure and energy-efficiency portfolios out there, and that bodes well for long-term growth."

Collins expects GE's industrial divisions to generate about $3.3 billion in first-quarter operating profit, buoyed in a big way by maintenance and other services. He said the figure is down about 12% from the year-ago period but still on track to be better than what he forecasts will be a 30% to 40% drop in earnings for the industrial sector as a whole this year.

Peter Klein, a portfolio manager at Fifth Third Asset Management Inc., said the tone of GE's discussions regarding its industrial businesses could turn out to be as important as the actual results when GE issues its first-quarter report.

"Realistically, there are pressures out there, so we expect there to be a slowdown" in the industrial units, said Klein, whose firm owns 4.8 million GE shares. But "you want to make sure that the tenor of the business outlook is not becoming more negative."

Conversely, he added, "there has been so much discounted in GE stock at this point that anything even slightly positive could act as a little bit of a springboard" for the shares.

GE shares were recently at $11.53, up 8.4% on the day. The 52-week range is $5.73 to $37.07.

-By Bob Sechler, Dow Jones Newswires; 512-394-0285; bob.sechler@dowjones.com