General Electric forecasts sales and revenue growth for 2014

General Electric Co. is one of the leading technology and financial services companies worldwide, which develop and manufacture products for the generation, transmission, distribution, control and utilization of electricity. On Wednesday the company announced to its investors that it expects it next years revenue growth to increase, as the economy of the U.S. is becoming more stable. General Electric Co. also predicted its industrial operations profits to grow double-digit.

As reported by the Financial Times, the companys chief executive officer Jeff Immelt explained in an annual presentation to analysts and investors that the company would have a “ton of cash”, with about 90 billion dollars available over the next three years. The sum is expected to be generated by the financial and industrial operation of the company, as well as by the planned North America retail finance business spin-off scheduled for 2014-2015. Mr. Immelt also said that a great part of these money could be used in order to raise the dividend of the company, as well as for its share buybacks and acquisitions. Only about a quarter of the 90 billion dollars are suggested to be used for capital investment and organic growth of the company.

Mr. Immelt once again emphasized on a previous statement of his, saying that General Electric Co. was not looking for a large deal. The target businesses on which the company was focused were estimated to 1-4 billion dollars.

General Electric Co.s chief executive officer also mentioned that he expected a pretty good 4% to 7% industrial revenues organic growth during 2014. This is considerably better than the roughly 2% rise, which was expected for 2013 and which is located at the bottom end of the 2% to 6% range forecast last year. The profit margins are also expected to become bigger. Mr. Immelt set a margin target of 17% for 2016.

Last week a 16%-rise of the quarterly dividend was announced by General Electric Co. It was the companys largest one since 2010. A reported by Financial Times, the prediction of a faster revenue growth is based on the companys expectations that the U.S. Economy is becoming more stable, while the European one remains quite weak.

According to the CNN Money, the current share price of General Electric Co. is 1.41% up, and the one-year return rate is 29.54% up. The 15 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for General Electric Co. have a median target of 28.00, with a high estimate of 32.00 and a low estimate of 26.00. The median estimate represents a +2.98% increase from the last price of 27.19.