NEW YORK (CNN/Money) -
General Electric Co. reported flat first-quarter earnings Thursday compared with a year earlier, meeting Wall Street earnings forecasts and the company's most recent guidance on better-than-expected revenue.
The conglomerate, which makes everything from consumer appliances to jet engines and owns operations from television networks to a financial services company, earned $3.24 billion, or 32 cents a share, in the quarter, excluding special items.
The results were up 1 percent from earnings of $3.21 billion, or 32 cents a share, on the same basis a year earlier, and in line with its raised guidance that it issued three weeks ago. It also met the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call.
The company saw profit growth of 10 percent or better in nine of its 11 units. The only declines in profits were in insurance and energy, where the weak market for turbine generator sales continued.
"It's really the broadest growth we've seen since the first quarter of 2000," said Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt in comments to investors and analysts.
The company said it now expects to earn 39 cents a share in the second quarter, which is the upper end of the guidance range it gave for the period in December. Chief Financial Officer Keith Sherin said he again expects double-digit growth at nine of the 11 units. The company earned 38 cents a share in the second quarter of 2003.
The first-quarter earnings and strong-second quarter outlook led the company to raise the lower end of its full-year EPS guidance to $1.55 from the old low end of the guidance of $1.50. But it kept the upper end of its guidance at $1.65. The company also confirmed that the impact of various deals it is closing this year will reduce those earnings by 5 cents a share for the year. The company earned $1.56 a share excluding special items in 2003.
GE executives did not give any specific outlook for 2005 earnings, but said the company is on target for continuing broad-based revenue and profit growth.
"This is really a continuation of growth we see in 2004," said Sherin talking about the outlook for 2005. "We're out of the deals' costs and into the positive synergy momentum."
Revenue in the quarter rose to $33.4 billion from $30.3 billion a year earlier, topping First Call's forecast of revenue of $31.7 billion. The biggest jump in revenue came from its consumer finance unit, where revenue was up $830 million, or 30 percent, over a year earlier. Insurance and energy were the only units to see a decline in revenue in the period.
Shares of GE (GE: up $0.32 to $31.72, Research, Estimates), a component of the Dow Jones industrial average, were up about 1 percent in early trading Thursday following the pre-market report.
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