GE halves its dividend — only the third cut in its 125-year history
New York — General Electric chopped its quarterly dividend in half on Monday, new CEO John Flannery’s first move in an overhaul of the conglomerate. More details of the review followed later in the day. GE cut the dividend to 12c per share from 24c starting in December, in a move that is expected to save the company about $4bn in cash annually. Its shares were up 0.7% at $20.64 in premarket trading. The stock is the worst-performing component of the Dow Jones industrial average this year, down 35% by Friday’s close. Flannery plans to focus on three of GE’s biggest business lines — aviation, power and healthcare — the Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter. GE said it would narrow its focus to power, healthcare and aviation business, and set an earnings target between $1.00 and $1.07 per share for next year, a drop from its earlier forecast. GE also said it would cut its board size to 12 from 18 members and add three new directors in ...
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