GE shares jump 5% on earnings surprise

Shares of General Electric were up 5% in morning trading Tuesday after the company reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for its second straight solid quarter.

GE, which has been streamlining its business for years, reported first quarter net income of $3.59 billion after posting a loss in the same quarter last year. Even the company's long struggling power segment outperformed expectations, though it said that the improvement was mostly driven by timing.

On a per-share basis, the Boston company posted net income of 41 cents. Earnings, adjusted to account for discontinued operations, came to 14 cents per share, which beat Wall Street projections by a nickel, according to a survey by Zacks Investment Research.

The industrial conglomerate posted revenue of $27.29 billion in the period, also surpassing Wall Street forecasts of $26.92 billion. The company had $27.8 billion in revenue in last year's first quarter.

The company left its 2019 guidance unchanged.

GE sold its biopharma unit to Danaher for more than $20 billion, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter. It also closed the merger of its GE Transportation unit with Wabtec, generating $2.9 billion in cash and a 24.9% ownership stake in Wabtec.

GE shares are up about 40% since the beginning of 2019, but are still down 25% from 12 months ago.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on GE at https://www.zacks.com/ap/GE