GE, Industrials Up On Geeky Goldman Call

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (TheStreet) -- General Electric (GE Quote) shares were up Wednesday following a bullish report from Goldman Sachs that appears to have been produced largely by a computer.

The report declares a sector-wide upgrade to so-called "multi-industry" stocks, raising price targets on GE, Danaher (DHR Quote), Dover Corp. (DOV Quote), 3M (MMM Quote), Illinois Tool Works(ITW Quote), Roper Industries (ROP Quote), United Technologies (UTX Quote), Parker-Hannifin (PH Quote) and Kennametal (KMT Quote).

Goldman only changed its overall rating on two companies, raising Illinois Tool Works to a "buy," from "neutral" and dropping W.W. Grainger (GWW Quote) to "neutral" from "buy."

The report says multi-industry stocks tend to perform well when the Purchasing Managers Index from the Institute for Supply Management passes 50%. The August total of 52.9% is the highest since June 2007, according to a press release from the ISM.

On GE, the report states Goldman's analysts are "encouraged by resilient performance of the company's Industrial portfolio in the downturn." In addition to reiterating their "buy" rating, they raised their price target to $18 from $15. GE shares were up 2% to $14.79 in recent trading.

-- Written by Dan Freed in New York.