The 10 top-searched stocks of 2014: GE is No. 8
General Electric (GE) was the eighth most-searched stock on Yahoo.com this year - which makes sense since the company had a big 2014. But that may not help in the long run, according to our panel of experts.
The biggest 'event' for GE in 2014 was the spinoff of GE Financial, the unit that previous controlled things like store credit cards. It’s now Synchrony Financial (SYF). But while investors seemed to like the move, it may have also resulted in a bit of an identity crisis for the company.
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“I guess people search for GE trying to figure out what GE is. I’m not sure GE has an answer for that question anymore. They’re not really an industrial company and they’re not really that murky financing group that Jack Welch left behind a decade ago,” said Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke.
Still, GE is a “classic American company,” said Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Aaron Task. “As GE goes, so goes the American economy. That’s a saying people never said, but I’m going to make it up right now.”
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What Task is essentially getting at is the investor belief that GE is tied to America’s industrial backbone, and that a strong American economy means a strong GE. “Main Street loves this stock, even after all these years of under performance,” said Yahoo Finance Senior Columnist Michael Santoli. “It’s still a company in transition though… it’s unclear to me if GE is ever going to close above $30/share.”
“They’ve had no revenue growth in four or five years. No profit growth. Stock’s been flat. That’s what you’re gonna get in the future,” summed up Yahoo Finance Columnist Rick Newman.
Worth noting though that currently, among the analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance, there are no sells on the stock.
More of the top-searched stocks of 2014:
