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General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) today gave disappointing financial guidance, ratcheting up pressure on CEO Jeffrey Immelt to boost its share price which hasn't done squat this year.The conglomerate expects earnings per share to rise "at least" 10% next year to $2.42, which Bloomberg News says trails the lowest analyst estimate. To Immelt's credit, he pulled no punches.
"'Im not going to put a happy face on the slowing U.S. consumer,'' Bloomberg News quotes him as saying. ``Our businesses that touch housing in the U.S. are going to be challenged.''
Investors are growing impatient with Immelt's promises of better times ahead. Yes, the company reaffirmed its fourth quarter EPS guidance of 67 cents to 69 cents and $2.19 to $2.21 for the year.
"We want to give our investors safe and reliable earnings growth as the economy evolves," Immelt said in the press release. But Wall Street expects better things out of GE. The company is going to find it more and more difficult to resist pressure to divest itself of NBC Universal and make other big changes.
The time for talk is over.
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