General Electric

GE-N

He has stayed way for a long time because it has been an enormous evolution since 2000. He does not know which of their businesses he wants to be involved in today.

He sold it much higher than where it is. It has been perennially a miss-managed situation. It has gone from a non-core to a speculative opportunity. You can't get drawn in by what they have done in the past. They are trying to survive by spinning out some of their best properties. They are not cash flow positive. He would caution anyone to think twice about investing in this.

He bought a position after he met the former CEO who talked about selling off assets. He sold at a loss. He's now wary of GE's ability to drive growth with a small collection of segments. He's avoiding GE. The dividend is good--and that's good to de-lever.

It'll be more bearish than one may expect. GE has so much to prove and they've been restructuring for years and years. It won't return to $7, but there is a lot to prove. Starting to see good fundamental underpinnings. He needs to see technical confirmation (i.e. earnings).

It should be trading higher in a year and is on here watch list. The new CEO still has to provide out their new business model. If you don't already own it, you should watch for direction.

It should be doing very well. The downward trend to last November goes back quiet a way. There will be resistance just below $11. It may be time to move on. He would be trying to get out of this.

Complex company. Their financial services sector nobody understand. Instead of looking at turnaround stories with all sort of complications it is better to focus on companies that are delivering free cash flows and increasing their dividends and trading at attractive valuations.

They've fallen on hard times due to mismanagement. They carry a lot of debt. So, if we enter a recession, GE will have a tough time paying that off.

Not for the faint of heart. It is hard to pick where you should have gotten in until after the fact. It was on a downward trend. He would be cautious right now. It is too soon to say it is forming a base. He would be surprised if it put in a 'V' bottom.

In their watch list but it is going to take a while to restructure the company. Still to early. Would wait until the CEO has an investor call.

Doesn't like it. So much work left to do to turn this company around. Has tons of debt. Controversial story right now. Sure it might go back to $15 but it will take years and high risk, and might not be worth it on an annualized basis given other opportunities in the market.

Destruction of capital. You don't want to be in a position where you're selling off your trophy assets. He wants to buy top-quality companies with great management, and that's not happening here. Buffet says "turnarounds seldom turn," so he tries to avoid these situations.

When companies run into trouble they will come out with a laundry list of things to blame. Usually it is management. In this case the seeds of their problem go back to Jack Welch. He set up GE-N for their later fall. He made GE capital such an important part of GE-N. Recently it was set up to be a big player in power generation. One acquisition was exactly at the wrong time. He has his clients completely out of it.

They've borrowed huge amounts of capital to buy back stock, which hasn't paid off at all. They have a ton of debt maturities coming in the next two years. He feels very negative about the credit market in general, so avoid GE.

They are in a dire financial situation and would not expect any increases in dividends as they fight for cash. Owning it puts you in a tough spot, because he thinks an investor could lose 100% of their holding. He sees better opportunities out there.