General Electric (GE) Gives More Back to Investors; Total Return Doubles S&P in FY12
Tweet
Share
E-mail
Get Alerts GE Hot Sheet
Join SI Premium – FREE
General Electric (NYSE: GE) shares are higher on the session, but a little more volatile following the announcement of a massive buyback and dividend boost.
Earlier Friday, GE said it was increasing its buyback authorization by $10 billion and extending the plan through 2015. Total buybacks authorized are now at $14.9 billion. At GE's current trading price, the buyback would be about 461.5 million shares, or 4.4 percent of total outstanding.
The dividend boost was two cents to 19 cents per share, for a fresh annual yield of 3.5 percent. With 10.48 billion shares outstanding, that comes to about $2 billion for GE over the next year.
Given that GE has about $85.5 billion of cash and equivalents, there's more than enough to cover the next round.
For the traders out there, GE hit a "Golden Cross" last February, where the 50-day SMA crossed above the longer 200-day SMA. Since then -- about February 1st -- GE shares are up over 18 percent.
Total return since the start of 2012, including stock appreciation of 23.9 percent and dividends yielding about 3.4 percent, is about 27.3 percent. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up about 12.4 percent.
Not bad for a $228 billion international mega conglomerate!
Earlier Friday, GE said it was increasing its buyback authorization by $10 billion and extending the plan through 2015. Total buybacks authorized are now at $14.9 billion. At GE's current trading price, the buyback would be about 461.5 million shares, or 4.4 percent of total outstanding.
The dividend boost was two cents to 19 cents per share, for a fresh annual yield of 3.5 percent. With 10.48 billion shares outstanding, that comes to about $2 billion for GE over the next year.
Given that GE has about $85.5 billion of cash and equivalents, there's more than enough to cover the next round.
For the traders out there, GE hit a "Golden Cross" last February, where the 50-day SMA crossed above the longer 200-day SMA. Since then -- about February 1st -- GE shares are up over 18 percent.
Total return since the start of 2012, including stock appreciation of 23.9 percent and dividends yielding about 3.4 percent, is about 27.3 percent. By comparison, the S&P 500 is up about 12.4 percent.
Not bad for a $228 billion international mega conglomerate!
Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!
You May Also Be Interested In
- Bank7 Corp. (BSVN) Raises Quarterly Dividend 11.1% to $0.30; 2.3% Yield
- Fortive (FTV) Declares $0.07 Quarterly Dividend; 0.5% Yield
- MGE Energy (MGEE) Declares $0.5083 Quarterly Dividend; 2.6% Yield
Create E-mail Alert Related Categories
Dividends, Insiders' Blog, Stock Buybacks, Trader TalkRelated Entities
Standard & Poor's, DividendSign up for StreetInsider Free!
Receive full access to all new and archived articles, unlimited portfolio tracking, e-mail alerts, custom newswires and RSS feeds - and more!
