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GE hits 3Q mark
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October 11, 2001: 1:08 p.m. ET
Conglomerate posts narrow profit gain, sees '01 meeting forecasts.
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NEW YORK (CNNmoney) - General Electric Co. posted a slight increase in third-quarter earnings Thursday, meeting Wall Street expectations, and said it is confident it will hit full-year earnings forecasts.
The conglomerate earned $3.3 billion, or 33 cents a share, in line with the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by research firm First Call and up from $3.2 billion, or 32 cents a share, a year earlier.
"All in all, it was a very robust quarter, ex the events of Sept. 11," ABN Amro analyst Todd Hinrichs said.
The company said that without a $400 million, or 4 cents a share, insurance loss due primarily to the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, it would have had a 16 percent gain in earnings per share.
"It's just what we were expecting, essentially," Hinrichs said. "The company reported 33 cents and, had the events of Sept. 11 not occurred, the company would have been in the 37-cent range."
GE (GE: up $1.35 to $39.26, Research, Estimates) said it should be able to earn $1.41 a share for the year, which is in line with First Call's forecast.
Revenue rose 7 percent to $29.5 billion. NBC, its television network which benefited from the 2000 Olympics, the U.S. election season and a generally stronger advertising market in the year-earlier period, saw revenue plunge 45 percent to $1.1 billion.
Sales also fell 19 percent to $13.3 billion at GE Capital Services, its largest unit, due to a previously announced exit from some businesses as well as a re-insurance premium related to the terrorist attack. But revenue from industrial products such as aircraft engines, power systems and appliances had a combined 10 percent gain.
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A 10 percent profit gain in aircraft engines to $674 million and nearly a doubling in power system profits to $1.3 billion from $670 million a year ago made up for the drop in the capital services unit.
"It's just amazing how important GE Power Systems has become to this company," Edward Jones analyst William Fiala said. "It really has allowed GE to maintain its earning growth." 
-- from staff and wire reports
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