No reset, no bottom for GE yet: J.P. Morgan
(Reuters) – General Electric Co <GE.N> shares are now worth less than $5 each, analysts from J.P. Morgan said on Monday, valuing the U.S. conglomerate at less than $44 billion and predicting it is yet to reach a turning point in efforts to reboot its businesses.
The bank’s Stephen Tusa, among the bearish group of analysts on GE who have predicted its fall from grace over the last three years, said he was withdrawing his price guidance on the company completely due to doubts over how much it was now worth.
GE shares fell about 1% to $6.54 in premarket trade, adding to a steep decline that has seen the company lose more than 40% of its market value this year.
Tusa said the company’s inability to forecast positive cashflow for the second half of 2020 suggested management is unclear about its financial outlook over the next 3-6 months and that hopes of better results next year may prove illusory.
“There is apparently enough visibility to not only call positive 2021 free cashflow but also a long term FCF target, all keeping a persistently optimistic Street from resetting,” Tusa wrote.
“The collapse of this forward estimate curve is coming soon.”
Some 12 of 20 other Wall Street analysts who cover GE currently recommend buying its shares. Most of those also expect GE to be free cash flow positive in the second half.
Tusa, a long-time bear on GE, said structural concerns in the struggling U.S. industrial conglomerate’s aviation and power businesses are preventing a turnaround.
(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Rachit Vats in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
