I estimate that General Electric Company's (NYSE: GE) Infrastructure segment is worth $154.6 billion.

GE's Infrastructure segment, which constituted 29.0%, 28.3% and 27.8% of GE's consolidated revenues in 2006, 2005 and 2004, respectively produces, sells, finances and services equipment for the air transportation and energy generation industries. It also produces, sells and services equipment for the rail transportation and water treatment industries.

GE Infrastructure is really the jewel in the GE crown. Its profits were up 23% in the second quarter. Demand for these products is very high as developing countries with huge cash balances upgrade their infrastructures. While I am not sure how big their budgets are likely to be over the next five to 10 years or whether the price of oil -- needed to fuel those budgets -- will stay as high as it is now, GE Infrastructure looks like a leader in an industry with great profit potential.

Assuming that GE Infrastructure generates net income of $8 billion in 2007, there is one comparable company, United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) which has a P/E of 19.4. Applying UTX's P/E to GE Infrastructure's earnings forecast yields an estimated value of $154.6 billion.

I would rather have a range of comparable companies, so I welcome suggestions for other publicly traded firms to use as a benchmark.

Next: Breaking Down GE Commercial Finance

Peter Cohan is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting and venture capital firm. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter. He owns General Electric shares and has no financial interest in the other securities mentioned in this post.

Breaking down GE's Infrastructure business: A BloggingStocks series originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

My fellow blogger Douglas McIntyre argued yesterday in a post about General Electric Co. (NYSE:GE) that "No one wants to hear about `quality of earnings.' Being in a businesses that are growing is much more important." He couldn't be more wrong.

There are plenty of General Electric investors interested in quality of earnings. Shares of General Electric fell after the company reported fourth quarter earnings because analysts argued that profit may have missed forecasts without reduced tax rates, according to Bloomberg News.

Investors avoid companies whose earnings earnings quality they don't like even if the growth is good. General Electric has got some explaining to do.

``This is now the fourth or fifth quarter in a row where we see quality-of-earnings issues,'' Steve Hoedt, an analyst with National City Corp. in Cleveland, which owns more than 21 million shares of GE, told Bloomberg News. The tax rate is ``masking a little bit of weakness in the underlying businesses."

McIntyre is right that there's also worry about General Electric's growth.

The fourth quarter had some good news and bad news.

General Electric's Industrial Business saw revenue drop 15 percent and profit fall 12 percent. Revenue at NBC Universal, which despite all of the media attention is GE's smallest business by revenue, fell 1 percent while profit rose 5 percent. GE Infrastructure, its largest business, posted double-digit earnings and revenue growth. GE Healthcare's profit rose 16 percent and its revenue rose 8 percent.

There will be lots to talk about at GE's investors' meetings.

General Electric is right that investors care plenty about earnings quality originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 27 Feb 2007 08:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.