General Electric Co.’s(NYSE: GE)quarterly profit beat expectations thanks to its aviation unit. The company’s jet-engine producing segmentoffset declines in its gas and oil unit.
The conglomerate reported that industrial revenue for the third quarter rose 4%, excluding acquisitions and currency swings.
Revenue was still short of some analyst estimates, and orders dropped 26%. Still, GE backed its profit target for the year.
GE shares were largely unaffected by the news, trading at $28 per share during premarket. Earlier, shares dropped almost 2%.
The Connecticut-based company is still in the middle of an overhaul, which started in April. The plan is to divest $200 billion of its capital financing assets to focus primarily on industrial manufacturing.
On Tuesday, the company struck a deal with Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC) to sell its commercial lending and leasing segment for $30 billion.
GE is pulling out of the financing industry, and announced on Friday that it expects to retire up to 7% of its outstanding floating shares before the end of the year. The move is a part of the plan to complete the spinoff of Synchrony Financial (NYSE: SYF), GE’s former retail finance segment.
Revenue in GE’s aviation segment grew 5%, but revenue in its largest segment, power and water, grew just 1%.
