GE’s dividend still looks safe

Article Excerpt

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $13 (New York symbol GE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 8.7 billion; Market cap: $113.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 3.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ge.com) plans to narrow its focus to three main businesses: electrical power equipment; renewable power equipment; and aviation products. As a result, GE will spin off its healthcare equipment operations as a separate firm. It also plans to sell its 62.5% stake in Baker Hughes, a GE Co. (New York symbol BHGE). That firm sells services and products to help exploration companies extract more oil and gas from their wells. GE expects its ongoing businesses to generate free cash flow (regular cash flow less capital expenditures) of $6 billion in 2018. That should let it keep paying its $0.48 dividend, which yields 3.7%. For the whole year, common dividend payments should total $4.2 billion. GE is still a buy for long-term gains. gains…