GE shares lure buyers but worst may not be over

New York

GENERAL Electric Co shares stabilised after a brutal slide the week before last sent the stock near six-year lows, but the worst may not be over.

Some investors still do not see enough value to warrant buying the shares, which have lost some of their lustre as a blue-chip investment.

They are sorting through massive changes announced by GE's new CEO John Flannery recently: hugely reduced near-term profit-growth prospects, a halved dividend, and a wave of promised divestitures.

"In a sense, the stock is trying to find an investor," said Scott Lawson, vice-president of Westwood Holdings Group in Dallas, who follows industrial stocks, as the stock was sliding last week. "That investor is not a growth guy, because they are not growing. It's not a value guy, because they're not cheap on the value metrics." The massive decline for the stock - more than 40 per cent this year - suggests that it would pique the interest of v…