GE Misses, Lowers Guidance; Financial Services Businesses Weak

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 ….. this is the biggest, most overt miss we can recall in 16+ years of coverage.

Jeffrey Sprague, Analyst, Citigroup

It is shocking to us how weak results were across the portfolio. We’d have never expected that NBC Universal profit growth of 3% would look so good relative to the rest of the portfolio. Health Care, Industrial, GE Money and Commercial Finance all posted declines.

“GE Hits A Wall” (subscription required) , Analyst Report, Credit Suisse

Our primary shortfall was a decline in financial services earnings.

Jeff Immelt, GE Chairman and CEO

General Electric (GE) reported weak earnings and lowered guidance before the open this morning – and not just by a little bit.  Earnings came in 7 cents below analysts expectations and they lowered full year 2008 guidance from $2.42 a share to between $2.20-$2.30 (GE Earnings Release).

GE shares are getting crushed, down 12.5%, on huge volume – way more than any other day in the last 5 years.

Being a bellwether company and stock, this report is causing a market wide selloff. 

Disclosure: Top Gun has no position in General Electric (GE) shares.

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