General Electric (GE) Tops Q1 EPS by 5c, Revenues Miss

April 17, 2009 7:05 AM EDT

General Electric (NYSE: GE) reports Q1 EPS from continuing operations of $0.26 per share, above the consensus of $0.21. Revenues came in at $38.41 billion, versus the consensus of $39.83 billion. Earnings were down 40% from first quarter 2008.

CEO Jeff Immelt said, "In a recessionary environment impacting every segment of the economy, we delivered first-quarter business results consistent with our GE Capital investor meeting on March 19th and the framework provided last December, which included a smaller but still-profitable GE Capital and 0-5% earnings growth in our Industrial segments."

Despite the difficult economy, GE generated $19 billion in Infrastructure orders, a decline of 10%. Importantly, high-margin service orders grew 7%. Major equipment and service backlog held approximately flat at $171 billion vs. year-end 2008 and was up 6% versus a year ago.

Capital Finance earned $1.1 billion in the quarter and remains on track to be profitable for the full year.

UPDATE: Click here to see some highlights from the opening statement made at the beginning of GE's Q1 conference call.

Also, here are some comments made about GE Capital on the call.

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