GE Aerospace sets tone with post-breakup profit goal, dividend

General Electric’s aerospace division is setting plans to return more of its profits to shareholders, including restoration of a significant dividend, as it accelerates earnings as an independent company. 

Operating earnings at GE Aerospace are forecast to reach US$10 billion by 2028, the company said on Thursday (Mar 7) in a statement, up from a maximum of US$6.5 billion expected this year. The company authorised US$15 billion in stock buybacks and said it planned to resume paying a dividend pegged at an initial 30 per cent of net income. 

“Our financial outlook demonstrates confidence in our future, with a robust market and demand for our products and services underpinning continued growth across revenue, operating profit and cash generation,” chief executive officer Larry Culp said in the statement.

The forecast is a sign of the earnings power awaiting investors once the conglomerate completes a long-awaited breakup. GE Aerospace is poised to become an independent company following the April 2 spinoff of GE Vernova, its collection of energy-related businesses. 

The dividend plan is especially symbolic for GE, which set the standard as a multinational US conglomerate for decades. Culp cut GE’s dividend to a token penny per share in one of his first moves after becoming CEO in 2018, when the company was in crisis.

The separation will complete a plan Culp announced in late 2021 to split the manufacturer into three companies focused on aerospace, health care and energy, culminating an effort to pull the company from a deep slump.

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GE Aerospace expects to generate more than US$5 billion of free cash flow this year, and grow adjusted revenue in the low double digits or more, in terms of percentage increase, the company said.

The outlook underscores how the world’s largest maker of jet engines is poised to cash in as air travel continues to bounce back from its pandemic-induced slump. Investors increasingly see the once-troubled industrial giant as a potential earnings powerhouse, fuelling a roughly 140 per cent jump in its shares since spinning off its huge health care division in January 2023. That compares with a roughly 33 per cent increase in the S&P 500 Index.

Melius Research analyst Rob Spingarn in January said GE will be the highest quality large-cap commercial aerospace company after the energy split. He cited more than 40,000 commercial engines being flown, maintenance work on its latest-generation engine picking up and the lack of an all-new jetliners planned by Boeing and Airbus. 

“GE should be in a cash harvest for years to come,” Spingarn said in a client note. BLOOMBERG