General Electric’s Demise

https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/30/investing/ge-dividend-cut-earnings-culp/index.html

One of the major companies in the U.S, General Electric, has plummeted over the last 5 years. It has been a staple on the NASDAQ (Top 30 companies) for decades. As the company’s value has been plummeting, it has been forced to lower its dividend yield. They didn’t just lower it, they dropped it to one penny. For every share you own through GE, you will only earn a penny per share every quarter. By doing this, they will be saving about $4 billion in cash for the year. The 3rd quarter market correction this year is still undergoing its return back to breaking even. General Electric’s revenue collapse affected the value of its shares negatively. The stock has fallen about 50% this year. The company is in desperate need of help. They have gone from a $461 million profit in 2017 to a $631 million loss so far this year.

This is important to me because my parents have held shares of GE for a while. It was a part of their retirement plan and their own stock trading, Now, it has been a detriment for growth in those accounts and plans. GE was known for having a decent dividend yield and affordable shares. For example, my parents would buy about 30 shares at a time and would accumulate a decent profit by the end of every quarter. Now they have been forced to sell nearly all of those shares. They still benefited from GE, but the company may no longer to be able to represent a NASDAQ company with these low dividend yields and decreasing revenue numbers every quarter.