The worst should be behind General Electric (GE) now that the company has slashed its dividend and starts to focus again on its neglected industrial core business. While General Electric has been the biggest laggard in the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2017, I believe downside from here on out is quite limited. In my opinion, General Electric is a prime rebound candidate, and the company could begin to close its underperformance gap in 2018.
2017 was not a good year for General Electric. The conglomerate has been under constant activist pressure, failed to deliver attractive capital returns, slashed its dividend, and reduced its full-year profit guidance from $1.60-$1.70/share to just $1.05-$1.10/share. As a result, General Electric has underperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by a HUGE margin.
