GE posts loss; raises cash forecast, beats on adjusted EPS

(Reuters) – General Electric Co (GE.N) on Wednesday posted a $1.3 billion loss in the third quarter, and said revenue was flat as it struggles to restore growth and profits after taking a $22 billion accounting charge a year ago.

But on an adjusted basis, the Boston-based conglomerate generated more profit than expected, beating analysts estimates, and vowed to deliver $1 billion more cash this year than it had previously forecast.

The results signaled “progress in the transformation of GE,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp said.

The company said it now expects full-year industrial free cash flow to be between $0 and $2 billion, compared with its earlier forecast of negative $1 billion to positive $1 billion.

GE shares were up 5.8 percent at $9.60 in premarket trading.

GE said it took an $8.7-billion charge for reducing its stake in Baker Hughes Co BKR.N to less than 50 percent in the quarter, a change that required GE to stop consolidating the oil and gas company’s earnings in GE’s results and to mark the remaining stake to fair market value. Analysts had expected a charge between $8.5 billion and $10 billion.

GE took a $1 billion charge for its long-term care insurance business to account for the effect of falling interest rates on its obligations. The charge was about what analysts expected.

GE also wrote off $740 million in goodwill for its hydro power business. Together, the insurance and goodwill charges amounted to 17 cents of EPS, GE said.

The company’s loss from continuing operations attributable to shareholders was $1.33 billion in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of $22.96 billion a year earlier.

Loss per share from continuing operations was 15 cents, versus a loss of $2.64 a year ago, the company said.

On an adjusted basis, which excludes such charges, GE earned 15 cents per share, compared with 11 cents that analysts had on average expected, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Total revenue fell slightly to $23.36 billion from $23.39 billion.