NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - General Electric Co. reported first-quarter double-digit growth across most of its businesses Friday as income topped $4 billion.
The industrial, financial and media conglomerate matched the higher end of its own forecast with net income of $4.04 billion, or 38 cents a share, but beat the 37 cents a share average analysts' prediction compiled by Thomson First Call.
A year ago, the Fairfield, Conn., company earned $3.24 billion, or 32 cents per share, in the first quarter from $33.35 billion in revenue.
On Friday, GE (GE: news, chart, profile) said revenue in the first three months of 2005 grew 19% to $39.81 million. Analysts polled by Thomson had expected revenue of slightly more than $38 billion.
Shares of GE, a Dow Jones Industrials Average component were bid up 35 cents to $35.85 on Instinet on early Friday.
Industrial sales rose 25% to $20.8 billion, and financial services sales climbed 13% to $19.1 billion.
GE said March 24 it would gain an extra penny per share from selling a $2.6 billion stake in insurer Genworth Financial. At the time, GE predicted first-quarter income of 37 cents to 38 cents a share, up from 36 cents to 37 cents a share and confirmed its 2005 profit forecast of $1.76 to $1.83 a share.
On Friday, GE lifted the bottom of its 2005 projected earnings range, forecasting $1.78 to $1.83 a share and said it would accelerate the repurchase of shares under its $15 billion buyback program.
"Nine of our 11 businesses delivered at least double-digit earnings growth, and we achieved organic revenue growth of 10%, exceeding our 8% target," Chief Executive Jeff Immelt said. The fast-growing segments included advanced materials, commercial finance, consumer finance, transportation, consumer, healthcare, infrastructure and NBC Universal, its entertainment arm.
Only GE's insurance and energy segments reported losses, as the company continues to exit the insurance sector and hits the low cycle of its energy business, analyst said.
Health-care revenue rose 33% to $3.3 billion and advanced materials revenue grew 18% to more than $2.2 billion. Immelt said GE took "substantial pricing actions to offset the pressures of commodity inflation," particularly the cost of benzene and other raw materials.
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