General Electric’s (GE) stock was given a rating of Overweight by Barclays who set its price target at $16. Last week, RBC Capital had given the stock a rating of Outperform with a price target of $15. The upgrades come amid significant changes at GE which are giving analysts optimism of a positive turnaround at the company.
GE has been struggling for a while now with slow sales and stock declines. The company lost its position on the Dow Jones index to Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) in June and has put several of its divisions up for sale during the year.
As part of its efforts to focus on aviation, power and renewable energy, the company revealed its plans to offload its healthcare, software, finance and insurance divisions along with its stake in Baker Hughes. GE also decided to divest parts of its industrial and power units in order to streamline its operations.
Analysts believe that under a new leadership, GE has a lot of options to explore in terms of restructuring and for ways to improve profits
Last week, in a surprise turn of events, GE replaced John Flannery with Larry Culp as CEO and the stock rallied 16% on the news. Analysts believe that the new chief has the potential to turn things around significantly. After a reduction in guidance for earnings and free cash flow along with a widely-anticipated dividend cut, it appears things can only get better now.
Analysts believe that under a new leadership, GE has a lot of options to explore in terms of restructuring and for ways to improve profits. On Friday, the stock saw a rally after details of the new CEO’s pay package were disclosed. Culp stands to make $300 million if he is able to push GE’s stock price to 150% over the next four years.
As of 1:50 pm ET, GE’s shares were up over 2%.