Immelt says GE's stock price suffering from "blue chip blues" at shareholder meeting

I'm listening to GE CEO Jeff Immelt speak at the annual shareholder meeting, which began at 10 a.m today. GE graciously decided to broadcast Immelt's remarks over the web (you can see the archived version, yay GE!), even though the actual meeting is only open to shareholders and not bloggers (boo, GE).

Immelt just candidly discussed GE's lagging share price -- no need to hide that in front of an audience of shareholders. He pointed out that the stock has underperformed the market over the past five and one-year periods (but matched the market over the past three years). He attributed that to the "blue chip blues" that many large companies are facing now. (And it's true, mega-cap stocks are getting cheaper as they improve their financial performance, but investors still stay away).

"The company is ahead of the market.," said Immelt. He believes the stock price will eventually follow the strong performance of the company. Big surprise, I know. But he also said Wall Street agrees and pointed to 19 out of 20 analysts that rate GE stock a buy.

To make the folks feel even better, Immelt also told them that he "has skin in the game." He has 1 million shares now and will get lots and lots more if the stock price increases. But I'm going to have to check that detail. He can't possibly have as many as I thought I heard him say.

All this is making me think I really should buy some GE stock (see my bio for more on my holdings and investment strategy). Plus, then I'll be able to attend the shareholder meeting in person next year!