General Electric Slashes Its Dividend 50% As CEO Flannery Resets Ailing Conglomerate
John Flannery
The engineering conglomerate  which makes everything from jet and train engines to energy grid infrastructure and mammogram machines  will be slashing its dividend 50% as  incoming CEO John Flannery  works to right the company's course amid woeful performance.
GE will now pay a 12-cent quarterly dividend  down from its prior 24-cent-a-quarter payout  due to the company's weaker than expected cash flows in its power business  pension costs and hefty insurance claims that have hampered dividends from its financial operations.  Flannery 's dividend cut marks the second big surprise since  he  took the reins of the $177 billion market capitalization company this summer  replacing Jeff Immelt. Weeks into  Flannery 's tenure   he  slashed GE's earnings outlook. Shares of GE have been falling since  hitting new post-crisis lows of $19 in Monday trading.
GE's dividend is prized among its shareholders  particularly retail investors and retirees who've owned the stock for decades. Former CEO Immelt characterized his decision to cut the company's dividend during the dark days of the crisis - when GE was teetering on collapse - as the worst moment of his career. It appears to be an equally brutal event for  Flannery .
About the move   Flannery  said the following to investors: "We understand the importance of this decision to our shareowners and we have not made it lightly. We are focused on driving total shareholder return and believe this is the right decision to align our dividend payout to cash flow generation."
Since becoming GE's leader   Flannery  has projected a style of accountability where  he  will be reviewing all businesses and making tough decisions when change is deemed necessary. The company's unrealistic earning guidance and its outstretched dividend are now gone; soon  Flannery  may wield a scalpel to underperforming divisions  or those that fit better in the portfolio of a private equity buyer.
On a conference call with investors on Monday   Flannery  vowed  he  and 1 000 executives will stop receiving long-term bonuses. But fanned more worry by offering 2018 earnings guidance of just $1-to-$1.07 a share and organic revenue growth of zero to 3%. Margins are only expected to improve as much as 40 basis points in 2018.
It is likely  Flannery  will try to refocus in areas where the company has a market leading footprint  for instance aviation  healthcare and renewable energy equipment. Aviation and healthcare are likely to be GE's fastest growing businesses best businesses such as renewable energy and aviation could grow their top and bottom likes by double digits and healthcare in the mid single digits. Before becoming CEO   Flannery  turned around GE's once-ailing healthcare business.
The engineering conglomerate  which makes everything from jet and train engines to energy grid infrastructure and mammogram machines  will be slashing its dividend 50% as  incoming  [TGT] works to right the company's course amid woeful performance.
GE will now pay a 12-cent quarterly dividend  down from its prior 24-cent-a-quarter payout  due to the company's weaker than expected cash flows in its power business  pension costs and hefty insurance claims that have hampered dividends from its financial operations.   [TGT]  's dividend cut marks the second big surprise since  he  took the reins of the $177 billion market capitalization company this summer  replacing Jeff Immelt. Weeks into   [TGT]  's tenure    [TGT]   slashed GE's earnings outlook. Shares of GE have been falling since  hitting new post-crisis lows of $19 in Monday trading.
GE's dividend is prized among its shareholders  particularly retail investors and retirees who've owned the stock for decades. Former CEO Immelt characterized his decision to cut the company's dividend during the dark days of the crisis - when GE was teetering on collapse - as the worst moment of his career. It appears to be an equally brutal event for  Flannery .
About the move   Flannery  said the following to investors: "We understand the importance of this decision to our shareowners and we have not made it lightly. We are focused on driving total shareholder return and believe this is the right decision to align our dividend payout to cash flow generation."
Since becoming GE's leader   Flannery  has projected a style of accountability where  he  will be reviewing all businesses and making tough decisions when change is deemed necessary. The company's unrealistic earning guidance and its outstretched dividend are now gone; soon  Flannery  may wield a scalpel to underperforming divisions  or those that fit better in the portfolio of a private equity buyer.
On a conference call with investors on Monday   Flannery  vowed  he  and 1 000 executives will stop receiving long-term bonuses. But fanned more worry by offering 2018 earnings guidance of just $1-to-$1.07 a share and organic revenue growth of zero to 3%. Margins are only expected to improve as much as 40 basis points in 2018.
It is likely  Flannery  will try to refocus in areas where the company has a market leading footprint  for instance aviation  healthcare and renewable energy equipment. Aviation and healthcare are likely to be GE's fastest growing businesses best businesses such as renewable energy and aviation could grow their top and bottom likes by double digits and healthcare in the mid single digits. Before becoming CEO   Flannery  turned around GE's once-ailing healthcare business.