Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, March 1, 2019

Article Excerpt

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO., $10.27, New York symbol GE, rose 10% this week after it agreed to sell its BioPharma business to Danaher Corp. (New York symbol DHR). That business makes lab equipment that pharmaceutical companies use to develop new drugs. (Note: GE’s current CEO, Larry Culp, is the former CEO of Danaher.) GE will use the proceeds of $21.4 billion to pay down its total debt of $110.0 billion (as of December 31, 2018). That’s a high 117% of its $89.4 billion market cap (the total value of all outstanding shares). The BioPharma sale is part of GE’s plan to focus on three main businesses: electrical power equipment (including turbines and related equipment for gas-fired and nuclear power plants); renewable-power equipment for wind farms and hydroelectric plants; and aviation products (jet engines and aircraft electronics). The sale to Danaher could also prompt GE to cancel its plan to spinoff its health-care division. The remaining operations mainly consist of medical resonance imaging machines and related…