General Electric Ups Guidance
General Electric
(GE) - Get Report
raised first-quarter earnings guidance to 37 cents or 38 cents a share Friday, citing growth in end markets and money from its sale of
Genworth Financial
(GNW) - Get Report
.
The old guidance was 36 cents or 37 cents a share. Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were forecasting earnings of 37 cents a share on sales of $38.01 billion in the quarter.
For the full year, GE confirmed earnings guidance of $1.76 to $1.83 a share. Analysts expect earnings of $1.81 a share on sales of $165.49 billion.
"GE's end markets continue to show solid growth, and our businesses are performing very well," the company said in a release.
The higher guidance was announced in conjunction with GE's pricing an 80.5-million-share underwritten secondary offering of Genworth Class A common stock at $26.50 each. Genworth, the company's former insurance unit, will simultaneously buy 19.4 million Class B shares from its former parent for $500 million.
GE will collect $2.6 billion from the two deals and retain a 52% Genworth stake, which it plans to gradually sell down. Proceeds will be used to reduce debt at GE Capital and enable the finance unit to raise the dividend it pays GE from 10% of its earnings to 40%, starting in the second quarter.
GE rose 50 cents, or 1.4%, to $36 in Instinet premarket trading.