GE streamlines its operations

Article Excerpt

GENERAL ELECTRIC CO. $10 (New York symbol GE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 8.7 billion; Market cap: $87.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.7; Dividend yield: 0.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.ge.com) continues to make progress with its plan to focus on three main businesses: aviation products, electrical power equipment, and renewable power equipment. As part of that strategy, it will merge its locomotive business with Wabtec Corp. (New York symbol WAB) by the end of February. GE shareholders will receive 0.005403 of a Wabtec share for each share they hold. As a group, they will own 24.3% of the merged company, while Wabtec shareholders will own 50.8%. GE will hold the remaining 24.9% of Wabtec, which is worth about $3.4 billion. The company plans to sell that stake within three years. GE is still a hold. hold. …