GE Shares Slide as JPMorgan Lowers Price Target on Gas Turbine Concerns
Martin Baccardax
Updated Sep 20, 2018 6:37 AM EDT
General Electric (GE) shares slipped lower in pre-market trading Thursday after JPMorgan analysts cut their rating on the struggling conglomerate amid concerns that a key gas turbine launch would hit the group's earnings.
Lead analyst Stephen Tusa, who has a underweight rating on the stock, lowered this price target to $10 a share from $11 as he reiterated concerns for the company's power division. Tusa said that checks on two initial U.S. installations revealed failures of the first stage blade of GE's H-frame gas turbine, and lowered his 2019 EPS to $0.75 cents a shares from $0.80 cents a share (against a Street consensus $1.04) and to $0.82 from $0.92 cents a share in 2020.
"The impact on 'asset value" from a failure at GE's U.S. H-frame launch customer, which tough to estimate, represents a negative development for a company that has little wiggle room for more "shoes to drop", counting on V-shape recoveries in long cycle businesses to reduce leverage that is already well above levels that support the standing rating," Tusa wrote.
"While the debate can rage around the structural versus cyclical nature of the power industry downturn is as bad as it seems, we believe there should be no longer any doubt that GE Power has company-specific issues," Tusa added "Not only due to the decline in the profit pool from tis large installed base of services, but now around the H-fram technology."
GE shares fell 2.02% from their Wednesday close in pre-market trading, indicating an opening bell price of $12.60 each, a move that would extend the stock's year-to-date decline past 28%.
Late last month, analysts at JPMorgan noted that "increased competition and lower demand for turbines and power plants" were creating a "prisoner's dilemma" for GE, where the company either "walks from business, turning up the heat on the melting ice cube, or cuts price to maintain the installed base, slowing the speed of the secular decline, while they figure out a strategy forward."
Credit rating giant Moody's has been monitoring GE's struggling power division for several months, noting in late April that GE's rating could be downgraded if "Moody's expects that revenues in the Power segment will be subject to further declines beyond 2019."
"The market continues to be difficult with softness in orders putting pressure on our cash flow and working capital," CEO John Flannery told investors on July 20. "The team continues to focus on rightsizing footprint, reducing base cost, improving quality, and maximizing value of our installed base. This transformation is taking place in the context of a very dynamic macro environment."
GE, which was turfed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average ^DJI by S&P Dow Jones Indices in favor of Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc (WBA) ,has been attempting to streamline its myriad businesses under Flannery's leadership for several months, announcing plans in late June to spin off its healthcare division and sell its stake in oil services group Baker Hughes (BHGE)
GE said the plans, which follow its ongoing strategic review, will mark a shift in focus towards its power, aviation and renewable-energy businesses and create "a simpler, stronger, leading high-tech Industrial company."
https://www.thestreet.com/markets/ge-shares-slide-as-jpmorgan-lowers-price-target-on-gas-turbine-concerns-14717987