Most investors believe that splits are bullish. There's no mathematical basis for that, of course. There's also a theory that splits make a round lot of 100 shares easier to buy, which increases demand for a stock and helps push up its share price. Employees who receive company stock in retirement plans and participants in dividend reinvestment plans don't have to worry either, because they can buy fractional shares. There's a final argument, though.
Companies hate to split a stock and then watch it go down.
So a split is effectively management's vote of confidence that good times will keep rolling. I'm willing to believe that GE's top managers believe that. But I also think there are grounds for a little skepticism. I still like GE as a strong hold and think it has great short-term prospects. But I'm less enthusiastic about next year and would start turning cautious if the stock moves much higher.