Friday 20 October 2017

GE - the important $22.00 threshold

General Electric (GE) posted Q3 results on Friday, and they weren't pretty. The stock duly imploded in pre-market to $21.48, saw a cash market low of $22.10, and settled the day +1.1% at $23.83. Now its a case of whether the stock closes above or below the key $22.00 threshold this Halloween. Its rather important!


GE daily



GE monthly



Summary

*First, a special chart note. For some reason, stockcharts is deleting the pre-market data from the closing charts. Thus the pre-market low of $21.48 no longer appears, but the stock was notably trading in the $21s for more than just a few minutes!
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see: https://www.ge.com/investor-relations/overview

see: https://www.ge.com/investor-relations/sites/default/files/ge_webcast_pressrelease_10202017.pdf
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GE has been struggling since the July 2016 high of $31.66. Note the monthly candle was spiky, and settled fractionally red, indicative of a key multi-month/year top. Despite today's bullish whipsaw, the close of $23.83 makes for a 24.7% decline across 16 months.

Today's settling daily candle is a hyper bullish engulfing candle. Those are to be taken seriously, and if GE can settle October >$22.00, it will give credence to today's massive upward swing.
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Q. Do I have faith in the new CEO Flannery?

I see a company that is struggling, but GE still decided to spend another $3.7bn in buying back shares in Q3 2017. Seriously, what the hell kind of policy is that? I'm broadly against such buy backs, but for a company that is struggling to continue this, its just plain crazy.

I will start to have some faith in Flannery if he cuts/halts the buy back. I'd rather see him do that, than cut the dividend.
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Eyes on the Halloween settlement.

The Tuesday Oct'31st settlement for GE will be VERY important. Will the stock manage a monthly close >$22.00?

To be clear, from a pure technical perspective, if GE settles Oct', Nov', or beyond, under $22.00, then it offers first soft psy level of $20.00, but a grander target of $13.00. 

Considering EPS for 2017 is now estimated to be $1.05-1.10, the $13s are a viable threat by mid 2018, even within an equity market that is broadly super strong.
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The Nov'13th meeting

GE have an investor meeting scheduled for Monday Nov'13th, and that will merit serious attention. The market will want to see a CEO with a solid plan for the mid term. If that includes a dividend cut, the market would likely not smash the stock, so long as it decides Flannery's plan as credible enough to turn the company around.