GE Profit and Revenue Rise, but Industrial Earnings Fall

General Electric Co. on Friday reported growth in its core earnings and revenue for the fourth quarter, though profit in its industrials business slid amid weakness in its oil-and-gas business.

Chief Executive Jeff Immelt described the current environment as "slow-growth" and noted that the first few weeks of the year have been "especially volatile." The company backed its 2016 outlook.

Shares of GE, up 18% in the past year, fell 0.9% a share premarket.

GE is in the midst of a yearslong transformation to refocus the conglomerate on its core industrial businesses like aviation and power. In the latest quarter, GE closed on its acquisition of Alstom SA's energy assets, bulking up its core power equipment business. GE also split out its renewable energy businesses, including new acquisitions from Alstom, into a stand-alone business unit.

Meanwhile, GE continues to wind down its lending business that has long been a distraction for investors who believed it dragged on the company's share price. GE has said it has sale agreements for $157 billion of the roughly $200 billion in finance assets up for sale.

Overall for the period ended Dec. 31, GE reported a profit of $6.28 billion, or 64 cents a share, compared with a profit of $5.15 billion, or 51 cents a share, a year earlier.

Profit in the quarter included the $175 million breakup fee it won after its deal to sell its appliance unit to Sweden's Electrolux AB collapsed in December. Earlier this month, GE struck a new deal to to sell that business to Chinese manufacturer Haier Group for $5.4 billion.

Overall revenue edged up 1.4% to $33.89 billion.

Excluding the finance businesses being wound down, GE reported a profit of 52 cents a share, while revenue came in its $33.8 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 49 cents and revenue of $35.96 billion excluding those businesses.

At its industrials segment, operating profit slid 7.8% to $5.52 billion, with profit declines across most of its divisions. Profit in its oil-and-gas business fell 19% as orders slid 35%. GE has warned that revenue and profit will fall in the oil and gas business as crude prices continue to tumble.

Segment profit in its power business fell 10%, though orders jumped 40% in the quarter. Aviation and transportation were standouts, logging 12% and 8% profit growth, respectively.

Industrial margins improved to 18.3% from 17.5%, excluding restructuring charges and other gains.

Tedd Mann contributed to this article

Write to Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 22, 2016 07:25 ET (12:25 GMT)

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